A view of the world's first fourth-generation nuclear power plant in east China's Shandong Province.
China has initiated expanding the world’s first fourth-generation nuclear power plant, the Shidaowan high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) nuclear power plant, in eastern China’s Shandong Province.
The project, for which China owns fully independent intellectual property rights, is located in Rongcheng County, Weihai City.
China Huaneng Group, Tsinghua University, and China National Nuclear Corporation jointly developed it.
Phase 1 expansion
Equipped with the world’s first high-temperature gas-cooled reactor, the fourth-generation reactor, the plant went into commercial operation last December.
Zhang Aijun, vice president of the HTGR Nuclear Power Company, Ltd, told China Media Group (CMG) that the first phase of the expansion project is to install another domestically developed third-generation pressurized water reactor, Hualong One, which will operate with the gas-cooled one.
“The first phase of the expansion project includes two units of Hualong One, our domestically developed third-generation nuclear reactors with independent intellectual property rights, each with a capacity of 1.2 million kilowatts,” Zhang said.
“Upon completion, the plant is expected to generate 20 billion kilowatt-hours per year and increase heating supply area by 20 million square meters to benefit 600,000 local residents.”
Phase 2 expansion
According to Zhang, the future expansion plan includes adding four more pressurized water reactors, each with a capacity of over one million kilowatts.
Upon completion, the power plant’s total installed capacity will exceed five million kilowatts, with an annual generation capacity of 35 billion kilowatt-hours, enough for the electricity consumption of over 17 million three-member households for a year.
Zhang said this is equivalent to offsetting 11.5 million tonnes of standard coal consumption and 27.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions on an annual basis.
“We will maximize the effect of the third-generation pressurized water reactor and the fourth-generation high-temperature gas-cooled reactor integrated at the big base, further enhance China’s nuclear power equipment manufacturing, construction, operation and maintenance capabilities, continuously expand the scenarios of comprehensive utilization of nuclear energy, and cultivate and develop new quality productive forces in nuclear power,” Zhang added.
How does this plant work?
In January, Zhang Yijin, a chief operator at the power plant, said that one of the major features of the fourth-generation reactors is the nuclear fuel made into a small sphere shaped like a tennis ball. Each reactor has up to 430,000 of them.
“This sphere is 6 centimeters in diameter, and inside it, are 12,000 one-millimeter coated fuel particles. And inside the particles, there’s a very small fuel core, and four layers of ceramic armor,” said Tong Liyun, another chief operator at the plant.
“The entire ceramic armor can withstand very high temperatures, and under any working conditions, the temperature of the fuel ball will not exceed the temperature that the ceramic armor can tolerate,” Tong said.
He stressed that in this way, the design ensures that radioactive materials will not leak out.
The operator said that each sphere has an energy equal to 1.5 tonnes of coal, and there is no need for the usual procedure of temporarily shutting down reactors for refueling, allowing constant operation.
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The operating reactors are cooled by the inert gas helium instead of water. They also use a passive residual heat removal system, which is the key assurance for the inherent safety of high-temperature gas-cooled reactors.
Construction of the power plant began in 2012. It was connected to the grid in 2021 and went into commercial operation in 2023.
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Kapil Kajal Kapil Kajal is an award-winning journalist with a diverse portfolio spanning defense, politics, technology, crime, environment, human rights, and foreign policy. His work has been featured in publications such as Janes, National Geographic, Al Jazeera, Rest of World, Mongabay, and Nikkei. Kapil holds a dual bachelor's degree in Electrical, Electronics, and Communication Engineering and a master’s diploma in journalism from the Institute of Journalism and New Media in Bangalore.
