The world's biggest light pressurized water reactor nuclear station, built by the China General Nuclear Power Group (CGNPG), has been put into commercial operation, according to a statement sent to the Global Times on Thursday.
The new station is expected to provide energy to the Hong Kong and Macao Special Administrative Regions (SARs) as their electricity demand jumps with industry restructuring, experts said.
According to the report, the Yangjiang station was put into use after its No.6 nuclear unit successfully completed 168 hours of full-load demonstration operation. The station has six nuclear generators, each with a capacity of more than 1 million kilowatts, and is capable of generating up to 48 billion kilowatt-hours annually.
That amount is equivalent to the electricity that a medium-size developing country needs for a year, Han Xiaoping, chief analyst at energy industry website china5e.com, told the Global Times.
The other five nuclear units of the station started operating as early as 2014. As of June 30, the Yangjiang station had produced 120 billion kilowatt hours of on-grid electricity, eliminating more than 100 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions.
"China's technology in nuclear power generation is leading the world," Hans said.
The Yangjiang station's No.1 and No.2 units are equipped with the CPR1000 technology, a Generation-II pressurized water reactor built by CGNPG that also incorporates the Generation-III French EPR nuclear energy technology.
The No.3 and No.4 units use CPR1000+ technology, an improved and localized version of the CPR1000 that's more similar to third-generation technology. Both the No.5 and No.6 units feature ACPR1000 technology, encompassing most features of third-generation nuclear power technology.
The average use of domestic technology in the six units has reached 83 percent, with that of the most essential equipment exceeding 85 percent.
With its immense capacity to generate electricity, the Yangjiang station is expected to provide energy for South China's Guangdong Province as well as the Macao and Hong Kong SARs.
"The station's location near the cluster of booming cities in South China implies that it's not just meant to support Guangdong Province, but also Hong Kong and Macao," Han noted.
"The area has been one of the biggest three consumers of electricity in China because of its huge manufacturing industry. But as the economy focuses more on technology, it will have an even bigger demand for electricity that only new-energy sources can provide without damaging the environment," Han said.
According to a report by the Xinhua News Agency, as of 2018, a total of 10 third-generation nuclear power units had been built or were under construction in China, accounting for one-third of the global total.
