A peek at China's own 3rd-gen nuclear power tech

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China's self-developed third-generation nuclear reactor, namely the "Hualong One", is being delivered to a power plant in southeast China's Fujian Province. The core part of the tech, the container of nuclear fuel, began installation on Wednesday and is expected to be finished by the end of this month.

This marks the installation phase of the world’s first Hualong One unit, also known as the no. 5 unit in Fuqing.

The Hualong One reactor pressure vessel /Xinhua Photo

The reactor pressure vessel (RPV) is the only irreplaceable key equipment in a nuclear power plant.

Designed by the Nuclear Power Institute of China (NPIC) and manufactured by China First Heavy Industries (CFHI), the 400-ton pressure vessel adopted a new reactor-core structure design, which will prolong its projected lifetime from 40 to 60 years. Security has also been increased with a higher seismic performance requirement.

It was completed and successfully delivered on August 20, 2017, in northeast China’s Dalian City after about four years’ construction, showing China’s capability to design and manufacture the third-generation nuclear equipment.

The containment dome of the reactor was installed in May 2017.

The dome for the fifth reactor at Fuqing /Photo via China National Nuclear Corporation

The Hualong One technology is a pressurized water reactor design that is used in homegrown third-generation reactors. It is China’s only domestically-developed third-generation nuclear technology that has so far gone international.

The technology increases the reactor’s safety performance and “can even withstand a tsunami of the strength that triggered Japan's Fukushima disaster," said Xue Junfeng, vice chief engineer of the Hualong One reactors in an interview in 2016.

There are now six units with Hualong One technology under construction: the no. 5 and 6 units of China National Nuclear Corporation, the no. 3 and 4 units of China General Nuclear Power Group, and the K2 and K3 units in Pakistan – the first overseas project that Hualong One has been part of.

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