China's first Hualong-One nuclear power station fitted with cooling towers starts construction in Shandong Province
A view of the construction site of Unit 2 of the Zhaoyuan nuclear power project in East China's Shandong Province. (Photo: Screenshot of a post by China General Nuclear Power Corporation)
The Unit 2 of the Zhaoyuan nuclear power station in East China's Shandong Province started pouring concrete on Saturday, marking the official start of the unit's main works and meaning the first phase of the plant has begun construction. The first phase will have two generating units, which is China's first Hualong-One reactor fitted with cooling towers.
Main construction on Unit 1 began on November 18, 2025. The reactor-building raft foundation being poured with concrete on Saturday is a cylinder with a radius of 27 meters and a height of 3.7 meters. About 8,800 cubic meters of concrete will be placed in a continuous pour expected to last some 60 hours.
Hualong One belongs to China's indigenous Generation III nuclear power technology. China is the fourth country to master indigenous Generation III nuclear power technology following the US, France, and Russia.
The Zhaoyuan site is CGN's 10th nuclear power base nationwide. It is planned to have six Hualong One units in total. Each unit will be paired with a 203-meter-tall high-level water-collecting natural-draft cooling tower with a fill area of 16,800 square meters, shifting the conventional island's heat sink from the sea to the atmosphere.
Once all units are in service, annual output is expected to reach 50 billion kilowatt-hours, enough to cover the annual power use of more than 5 million people. That is equivalent to reducing standard coal consumption by about 15.02 million tons less standard coal a year and cutting carbon dioxide emissions by about 46.2 million tons — an environmental gain comparable to afforesting more than 110,000 hectares, according to the post.
The project is being integrated into Shandong's Jiaodong Peninsula clean-heating network, with the aim of building a demonstration base for the comprehensive use of nuclear energy and advancing pilot applications such as nuclear heating and industrial steam, the post reads.
A total of 46 nuclear power units were approved to be built during the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) period, data from the National Energy Administration showed. The Chinese mainland now has 120 nuclear power units in operation, under construction, or approved and awaiting construction, with a combined capacity of 135 million kilowatts, according to media reports.