Around the May Day holiday, the Hualong One nuclear power projects in Hainan and Guangdong provinces achieved significant milestones, taking crucial steps towards grid connection and commercial operation. On April 30, the large state-owned power generation enterprise China Huaneng Group announced that Unit 3 of the Huaneng Hainan Changjiang Nuclear Power Phase II project, the first Hualong One project in the Hainan Free Trade Port, received an operating license from the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and commenced loading its first batch of nuclear fuel. Before a new nuclear power plant can officially supply electricity to the main grid, it must generally go through stages including preliminary preparation, civil construction, equipment installation, and commissioning. The commissioning phase includes milestones such as cold testing, hot testing, fuel loading, and grid connection, representing a comprehensive and rigorous inspection process for the plant. Fuel loading marks the boundary between non-nuclear and nuclear testing in a nuclear power project. As a critical step before grid connection and commercial operation, initial fuel loading involves placing new nuclear fuel assemblies into the reactor pressure vessel, signifying the transition of the nuclear unit into the phase of trial operation with nuclear fuel. After fuel loading is complete, the nuclear unit must still undergo a series of tests, including reactor criticality, grid connection, and power level tests at platforms like 50% and 87% capacity, culminating in a 168-hour full-power trial run before entering commercial operation. The Huaneng Changjiang Nuclear Power Phase II project, which includes Units 3 and 4, is the largest power investment project since the establishment of the Hainan Free Trade Port. It plans to construct two Hualong One nuclear power units with a capacity of 1.2 million kilowatts each. Upon completion, the project is expected to generate 18 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, saving 6.326 million tons of standard coal and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 11.68 million tons each year. Public data shows the total investment in the Changjiang Phase II project is 39.45 billion yuan. As of the end of March this year, installed capacity and electricity generation from clean energy sources in Hainan both accounted for over 85% of the total. As early as 2019, when the Changjiang Phase II project was fully launched, nuclear power already accounted for nearly one-third of Hainan's power supply. During the 2026 Hainan Provincial Two Sessions, Wei Zhigang, Director of the China National Nuclear Corporation (Hainan) Market Development Department, and Party Secretary and Chairman of Hainan Nuclear Power Co., Ltd., stated that next year, nuclear energy's share in Hainan's power mix is expected to exceed 50%, making it the regional economy with the highest proportion of nuclear energy after France. On May 3, the initial fuel loading for Unit 2 of the CGN Guangdong Taipingling Nuclear Power Plant was successfully completed. As the first Hualong One nuclear power construction base in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and a flagship project for the batch construction and operation of CGN's Hualong One units, the Taipingling plant plans to construct a total of six Hualong One units. Unit 1 completed its 168-hour trial run on April 19 this year, formally meeting the conditions for commercial operation. Construction of Unit 2 began on October 15, 2020, and the completion of its initial fuel loading marks another step towards the full completion and operation of the first phase. Construction of Unit 3, part of the second phase, began in June 2025, and preliminary preparations for the third phase are actively underway. Once all six units are completed and operational, the Taipingling Nuclear Power Base is expected to generate over 55 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, creating more than 20 billion yuan in green GDP. It will equivalently reduce standard coal consumption by approximately 16.65 million tons and cut carbon dioxide emissions by about 50.82 million tons each year. Guangdong firmly maintains its position as the leading province for nuclear power in China. By the end of 2025, the scale of nuclear power under construction and in operation in the province ranked first nationally.
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