The so-called Warm Core No 1 district heating project officially began supplying heat to the urban area of Rongcheng on 15 November, SPIC said. The cities of Haiyang and Rushan have already been receiving heat.
The Haiyang plant officially started providing district heat to the surrounding area in November 2020. A trial of the project – the country’s first commercial nuclear heating project – was carried out the previous winter, providing heat to 700,000 square metres of housing, including the plant’s dormitory and some local residents. Earlier in 2020, the project began providing heating to the entire Haiyang city. The city of Ruchan began receiving district heating from the plant in 2021.
The project uses domestically mature steam extraction heating technology and innovatively applies ‘dual-unit series large temperature difference’ heating technology, SPIC said. “This allows for two units to be connected in series to sequentially heat the circulating water in the heating network, significantly increasing heating capacity. Alternatively, a single unit can provide heating independently, flexibly adjusting heating capacity according to demand and improving the reliability of the heating system. Nuclear heating is both an innovative nuclear energy project and a project that improves people’s well-being.”
SPIC said the project is expected to reduce coal consumption by about 120,000 tonnes annually, reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 360,000 tonnes, nitrogen oxide emissions by 2,066 tonnes, sulphur dioxide by 2,173 tonnes, and soot by 1,258 tonnes.
The Haiyang nuclear power plant is home to two AP1000 pressurised water reactors which entered commercial operation in 2018 and 2019 respectively. Two CAP1000 pressurised water reactors are now under construction at the site with grid connection pencilled in for 2027.
Russia, several East European countries, Switzerland and Sweden have all had nuclear-fuelled district heating schemes, and heat from nuclear power plants has also been sent to industrial sites in several countries.
