On Sept 12, 2021, a high temperature gas cooled reactor nuclear power plant in Shidaowan, Shandong province entered a status of “sustained nuclear reaction”, which means that the world’s first Pebble-bed Modular High-Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor Power Plant co-developed by Tsinghua University, China Huaneng Group Co.,LTD and China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) is ready to start operation for power generation.

In the near future, the nuclear power plant will be gradually used for business, marking China’s leading place in the world’s advanced nuclear energy technology field.

More than 30 years for high temperature gas cooled reactor

Differing from the Daya Bay Nuclear Power Plant and Qinshan Nuclear Power Plant, the Shidaowan Nuclear Power Plant adopts more advanced technology -- high temperature gas cooled reactor technology, which is the result of work done by three generations of Tsinghua University nuclear energy experts and more than 100 scientists with over 30 years of assiduous efforts.

In December 2012, the Shidaowan Nuclear Power Plant broke ground, gathering more than 10 billion yuan ($1.55 billion) in investment, recruiting tens of thousands of people for involvement, and developing and manufacturing more than 15,000 facilities, including 2,200 machines and 660 innovative machines, as well as formulating 50,000 design papers and 100,000 pages of files.

Localization rate of parts and components reaches 93.4 percent

Every component and part of Shidaowan Nuclear Power Plant gathers Tsinghua strength and Chinese wisdom. With the highest localization rate for a nuclear power project so far in China, the nuclear power plant’s equipment manufacturing localization rate has reached 93.4 percent, far beyond the preset target of 75 percent.

The advanced fourth generation of nuclear power technology

“China is the first one in the world to apply the fourth generation of nuclear power technology to power plant building,” said Zhang Zuoyi, director of the Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology (INET) of Tsinghua University and general designer of the demonstration project of the high temperature gas cooled reactor.

Inherent safety is the most prominent feature of the high temperature gas cooled reactor

Shidaowan Nuclear Power Plant adopts small modular technology to provide “double insurance” for its safety.

Nuclear energy to be applied in more sectors with the improvement of energy utilization

In the future, the Shidaowan Nuclear Power Plant will generate 1.4 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity every year for 2 million residents and reduce CO2 emissions by 900,000 tons. Since the reactor outlet has a high temperature , it can provide high quality steam for the chemical and petrochemical industries and decrease CO2 emissions in the iron, steel and coal chemical industries. It is also expected to fulfill large-scale and low-cost hydrogen production with nuclear energy, making its contribution to the optimization and upgrading of China’s energy structure, as well as environmental protection for China and the world.