Construction of a new Chinese nuclear power plant has begun: the first Hualong One with a natural-circulation tower.

As reported by WNN, the cornerstone has been laid for the reactor building of Unit 1 at the Zhaoyuan Nuclear Power Plant in Shandong Province. This is the first of six planned HPR1000 (Hualong One) reactors at this site.

The project is being built by and will be operated by Shandong Zhaoyuan Nuclear Power Company, a subsidiary of China General Nuclear (CGN). The construction of Phase I (Units 1 and 2) was approved by the State Council of China in August 2024.

Phase I of the Zhaoyuan project is CGN's first nuclear project in Shandong Province and the tenth site of the company's nuclear power plants, and at this site six HPR1000 blocks are planned to be built, with a total capacity of 7.2 gigawatts, while the expected investment cost is 16.9 billion U.S. dollars. It is expected to generate 50 TWh of electricity annually, which is enough to cover the annual needs of about five million people.

According to CGN, once the power plant is in operation, coal consumption will be reduced by about 15.27 million tons, and carbon dioxide emissions will be reduced by approximately 46.2 million tons each year. It is expected that each unit will begin producing electricity only 50 to 60 months after the start of construction.

By the way, the most notable novelty of this project is the cooling tower with natural circulation, 203 meters tall, with a cooling surface area of 16,800 square meters, according to Global Times (this is the so-called hyperbolic tower that we most often associate with nuclear power plants, although such towers are not present in all nuclear power plants). The CEO of Shandong Zhaoyuan Nuclear Power Company, Yu Xiangdong, explained that this is the first time that secondary cooling technology has been applied to the Hualong One reactor.

This design enables using atmospheric cooling instead of drawing water from nature (rivers or sea) to cool the final cooling loop in the plant, which has many advantages: it reduces water usage and is significantly more energy-efficient.

Moreover, by adopting this technology, the possibilities for locating nuclear plants are expanded and it provides a new reference experience for China's future nuclear development.