China’s National Energy Administration and the China Huaneng Group have announced the start of commercial operations on the world's first fourth-generation nuclear power plant, located in the Shandong Province (eastern China). The 200 MW Shidaowan high temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) nuclear power plant was jointly developed by the state-run utility China Huaneng, Tsinghua University and China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC). Construction of the plant started in 2012 and it generated its first power in December 2021.
The HTGR is a type of small modular reactor (SMR) that features fourth-generation nuclear power technology. It integrates a “safety” characteristic, which would help the reactor maintain a safe state and steer away from a meltdown or leak of radioactive materials, even in the event of a complete loss of cooling capacity, without any intervention actions. NuScale Power, previously expected to be the first US company licensed to build a SMR, announced in early December 2023 that it was abandoning a planned 462 MW project in Utah (United States) because of rising costs.
China aims to produce 10% of its electricity from nuclear power by 2035 and 18% by 2060 (5% in 2022).
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