China’s First Private-Capital Participated Hualong One Unit Enters Commercial Operation Readiness

At 11:18 on April 29, China General Nuclear Power Group’s (CGN) Zhejiang San’ao Nuclear Power Project Unit 1, the first Hualong One nuclear power unit in the Yangtze River Delta and China’s first nuclear power project with private capital participation, officially gained commercial operation readiness after the successful completion of a 168-hour trial operation. With the commissioning of this unit, the number of in-operation nuclear power units of CGN reaches 30, with a total installed capacity of 34.248 million kilowatts.

Xinhua News reports that the Hualong One is China’s independently developed third-generation nuclear power technology, featuring advanced safety performance and mature operation experience, which has become a core symbol of China’s nuclear power industry’s independent innovation capability. The first phase of the San’ao Nuclear Power Project was approved by the state on September 2, 2020, and the main project of Unit 1 started construction on December 31, 2020, with steady progress throughout the construction period.

Currently, all parameters of Unit 1 are stable and controllable, and its overall condition is sound. Calculated based on the average utilization hours of China’s nuclear power in 2025, the unit is expected to generate more than 9 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, which can meet the annual production and living electricity needs of over 1 million residents and continuously provide clean energy support for the green and low-carbon transformation and intelligent economic development of the Yangtze River Delta region.

People’s Network notes that the San’ao Nuclear Power Project is a milestone in China’s nuclear power investment and financing system reform. Geely Technology Group holds a 2% stake in the first phase of the project, setting a model for private capital to participate in the construction of major national energy infrastructure.

Since the start of the project, CGN has taken independent innovation as the driving force, cooperating with about 2,000 private enterprises in fields such as equipment manufacturing, maintenance services, engineering construction, general material supply and logistics support, allowing private capital to share the dividends brought by major projects. The project has achieved multiple breakthroughs in core technology localization, intelligent engineering construction and investment and financing model innovation, fully demonstrating the competitiveness of China’s complete nuclear power industrial chain.

Up to now, the first phase of the San’ao Nuclear Power Project has sorted out 13,926 experience feedback items and completed more than 260 design optimizations and improvements, including cold source improvement, overhaul re-powering transformation and 5G private network construction. It has also realized the first domestic application of 24 core main equipment, such as core measurement systems and main steam relief valves.

As one of the national computing power hub nodes under the “East Digital West Computing” project, the Yangtze River Delta is the region with the strongest computing power demand and the most complete industrial supporting facilities in China, with an urgent and continuous need for stable, clean and efficient base load power. Xinhua News reports that green power and computing power coordination has become an important direction for the region’s high-quality development, and nuclear power, as a stable green base load power, will play a key role in this process.

The San’ao Nuclear Power Project is planned to build 6 Hualong One nuclear power units in three phases, with 4 units approved so far, and the overall construction is advancing steadily as planned. When all 6 units are completed, their annual power generation capacity is expected to exceed 54 billion kilowatt-hours, close to 80% of Wenzhou’s total annual electricity consumption. It will reduce standard coal consumption by more than 16.35 million tons and carbon dioxide emissions by nearly 50 million tons annually, providing solid support for the Yangtze River Delta computing power hub, intelligent economy and high-quality development, and helping implement the strategic requirement of promoting the coordinated layout of green power and computing power in the 15th Five-Year Plan.