Construction starts on third Haiyang unit

"The construction of the base plate of the nuclear island raft of Haiyang nuclear power unit 3 started at 9.17am on 7 July and was completed at 2:16pm on 9 July," SNERDI said. "It took 53 hours and a total of 5488 cubic metres of concrete was poured."

The construction of two new reactors at each of the Sanmen, Haiyang and Lufeng nuclear power plant sites was approved by the China's State Council on 20 April this year. The approvals were for Sanmen units 3 and 4, Haiyang 3 and 4 and units 5 and 6 of the Lufeng plant. The Sanmen and Haiyang plants are already home to two Westinghouse AP1000 units each, and two CAP1000 units - the Chinese version of the AP1000 - were approved for Phase II (units 3 and 4) of each plant.

In May, China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) signed contracts for the civil construction of the nuclear islands and installation engineering for the planned second phases of the Sanmen and Haiyang nuclear power plants. China Nuclear Industry 22 Construction Company was contracted to carry out the civil construction of the Sanmen Phase II nuclear island, while China Nuclear Industry 24 Construction Company will conduct the civil construction of the Haiyang Phase II nuclear island. Meanwhile, China Nuclear Industry Fifth Construction Company (CNI5) has been contracted to undertake the nuclear island installation work at all four units.

The almost-completed foundation for Haiyang 3's reactor building (Image: SNERDI)

First concrete was poured for the nuclear island of Sanmen 3 on 28 June.

Unit 1 of the Haiyang plant entered commercial operation in October 2018, with unit 2 following in January. Together, Haiyang units 1 and 2 will provide some 20 TWh of electricity to the grid annually, sufficient to meet one-third of household demand in Shandong province.

Expansion of district heating project

Beginning in September 2020, Shandong Nuclear Power Company - a subsidiary of State Power Investment Corporation (SPIC) and the owner of Haiyang plant - cooperated with local thermal company Fengyuan Thermal Power to conduct a trial operation of the entire heating pipe network. At the end of October, trial operation using steam from Haiyang's two AP1000 reactors was carried out. On 12 November, the entire heating network began low-temperature trial operation. This was completed on 15 November and the system entered commercial operation.

The system extracts non-radioactive steam from the secondary circuit of the two Haiyang units, which is then fed through a multi-stage heat exchanger in an on-site heat exchange station. This heat is then fed to an off-site heat exchange station belonging to Fengyuan Thermal Power, from where heated water flows through municipal heating pipes to consumers.

SPIC has now also a lunched a 900 MWt long-distance, cross-regional nuclear energy heating project at the Haiyang plant. It claims it will be "the world's largest single-unit extraction steam heating project".

A heat transmission pipe network about 120 kilometres in length will be built, and the heating area is expected to reach 30 million square metres, meeting the heating needs of about 1 million people in the Jiaodong Peninsula. The project is planned to be completed and put into operation in 2023.

SPIC said the heating network can replace 900,000 tonnes of coal consumption and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 1.65 million tonnes.

"With the construction of follow-up projects at Haiyang nuclear power plant, the final heating capacity of the Haiyang plant will reach 200 million square metres, which will provide a new demonstration for the large-scale, long-distance, and cross-regional zero-carbon heating of China's nuclear power bases, and help reduce China's carbon emissions," SPIC noted.