China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) said the last batch of concrete was poured for the inner dome of Zhangzhou unit 3 on 30 September. “This key milestone marks the completion of the civil engineering construction of the unit’s inner containment structure, laying a solid foundation for subsequent prestressed containment construction and the installation of core nuclear equipment,” it noted.
The HPR1000 (Hualong One) reactor design features a double-layered containment building, the main function of which is to ensure the integrity and leak tightness of the reactor building, and it plays a key role in the containment of radioactive substances.
China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment issued construction licences for Zhangzhou units 1 and 2 – both featuring Hualong One reactors – in October 2019 to CNNC-Guodian Zhangzhou Energy Company, the owner of the Zhangzhou nuclear power project, which was created by CNNC (51%) and China Guodian Corporation (49%) in 2011. Construction of Zhangzhou 1 began in October 2019, with that of unit 2 starting in September 2020. Unit 1 entered commercial operation on 1 January 2025 while unit 2 entered commercial operation on 1 January 2026.
In September 2022, China’s State Council approved the construction of two further Hualong One units as Phase II – units 3 and 4 – of the Zhangzhou plant. Construction of unit 3 began in February 2024, with that of unit 4 starting in September. The inner steel safety dome was installed on the containment building of unit 3 in early February this year.
There are proposals for two more Hualong One units at the plant. Once fully completed, a six-unit Zhangzhou plant would provide more than 60 billion kilowatt-hours of clean energy annually, estimated to meet 75% of the total electricity consumption of Xiamen and Zhangzhou cities in southern Fujian.
Zhaoyuan concrete pours
Meanwhile, China General Nuclear (CGN) said the first phase (units 1 and 2) of the Zhaoyuan plant had entered its peak civil construction period. It said that concrete pouring for “the inner five layers and outer one layer” of the reactor building for unit 1 of the Zhaoyuan plant had been completed, while the construction of internal wall panels “is proceeding smoothly”.
In addition, unit 2 had achieved the first concrete pour for the nuclear island, conventional island, and cooling tower. Offshore engineering and the construction of onshore water intake and drainage pipelines, CGN said, are also progressing steadily.
In November 2022, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment announced the formal acceptance of the environmental impact assessment documents covering the site selection stage for the Zhaoyuan plant. Construction of Phase I of the plant was approved by China’s State Council in August 2024. First concrete was poured for unit 1 in November 2025, with that for unit 2 following on 5 September this year.
The plant, representing a total investment of about CNY120 billion (USD16.9 billion), will eventually house six Hualong One units. Each unit is expected to start generating power 50-60 months after the start of its construction. With a total installed capacity of 7.2 GWe, the plant is expected to generate 50 TWh of electricity annually – enough to meet the yearly needs of about five million people. It will be equivalent to cutting standard coal consumption by roughly 15.27 million tonnes and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by about 46.2 million tonnes each year, according to CGN.
The Zhaoyuan plant project marks the first application of secondary circulation large-scale seawater cooling systems at a nuclear power plant in China. Each unit will be equipped with a 203-metre-high high-level water-collecting natural draft cooling tower with a water-spraying area of 16,800 square metres, changing the direct cooling source of the conventional island of the nuclear power plant from the ocean to the atmosphere.
