China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) has poured first concrete for the nuclear island of unit 1 at Phase I of the Xuwei nuclear power plant in Jiangsu (East China) (World Nuclear News, 16/01/2026). Approved by the country’s State Council in 2024, the project will comprise two 1,208 MWe Hualong One units and one 660 MWe high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) unit at the site in Lianyungang.
At this plant, Hualong One reactors will first generate saturated steam from desalinised water, which will then be reheated using high-temperature steam from the HTGR. A steam heat exchange station will allow this steam to either supply low-carbon steam to the local petrochemical industry or feed into the plant's turbine generator units of the conventional island of the two Hualong One units to produce extra electricity. Once the project is commissioned, it will produce 32.5 Mt/year of industrial steam and 11.5 TWh/year of electricity.
Nuclear capacity in China reached 61 GW at the end of 2024, with a total of 57 reactors accounting for 2% of the country’s total capacity. It also represented 5% of China’s power mix in 2024.
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