China's first nuclear power unit with the Hualong One reactor in the country's western region, the No. 3 nuclear power unit of the Fangchenggang Nuclear Power Plant in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, officially went into operation on Saturday. 

The latest Hualong One, a China-developed third-generation nuclear reactor, is the third currently operating in the country. 

Since the nuclear power unit was connected to the power grid in mid-January, more than 140 tests have been run to ensure its smooth and safe operation. 

Yang Changli, chairman of the China General Nuclear Power Corporation, the organ that is in charge of the project, noted that the unit is expected to open a new chapter in local electricity provision. 

"The Hualong One reactor adopts the world's highest safety requirements and latest technical standards. The annual power generation capacity of each single nuclear unit of the Hualong One reactor reaches nearly 10 billion KWHs, satisfying the production and daily life needs of one million people for a year," Yang said. 

The latest unit belongs to the Fangchenggang Nuclear Power Plant, the first nuclear project in China's western region. The unit will be followed by five more, each of which will have the capacity to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by more than six million tonnes per year, further aiding the country's efforts to reach its ambition of carbon peak by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060. 

"After all six units of the Fangchenggang (Nuclear Power Co, Ltd.) go into operation upon completion of their construction, they are expected to generate about 52.6 billion KWHs of electricity per year. This lies squarely in line with the clean energy base plans of the coastal areas of Guangxi and is of great significance to the local green energy transition, guarantee of safe energy supply and improvement of efficiency of energy systems," said Mei Jun, commander in chief of the nuclear power units of the Hualong One reactor with Guangxi Fangchenggang Nuclear Power Co, Ltd. 

In addition, 10 Hualong One reactors are now under construction across a number of Chinese cities including the enterprise clusters of Guangzhong, Zhejiang, Fujian and the top tourism destination of Hainan, which is expected to cover roughly 5,400 companies on the upper and lower reaches of the nuclear power industry chain, playing a key role in driving the development of new technology and new equipment and localized production of more than 400 types of key equipment in China, and the development of China's nuclear power technology and equipment manufacturing. 

"Once we've mastered the core technologies, we've mastered autonomy. And under such circumstances, we can make further optimizations so that the functions and project durations will be improved and the costs will be brought down," said Wang Xin, chief designer of nuclear power units of Hualong One reactor with China General Nuclear Power Group.