Photo taken on March 21 shows the installation site of a hemispherical dome at the No. 6 unit of China National Nuclear Corporation’s Fuqing nuclear power plant in southeast China’s Fujian Province. In May of 2017, a containment dome was installed on the No. 5 unit of the nuclear power plant, the first reactor featuring the Hualong One design. Photo: Xinhua
Construction has begun on a floating nuclear power plant in the city of Yantai, East China’s Shandong Province.
A floating nuclear power plant is a site with one or more nuclear reactors, located on a platform at sea that can provide electricity and heat to areas with difficult access, such as cold northern territories.
Construction is at an early stage, an employee from the Yantai Nuclear Power Research and Development Center told the Global Times on Monday. He refused to release more details.
The first platform of the 1.4 million yuan ($202,000) project will be put into use in 2021 and will be able to provide clean energy to coastal cities, islands, offshore work platforms and polar and remote regions, Qilu Evening News reported on Friday.
Construction is a major step in guaranteeing China’s marine strategy and security, said the Shandong Province newspaper.
China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) is in charge of the project, according to the Jinan-based newspaper.
Information about the project was released by Yantai Party chief Zhang Shuping at the 2018 nuclear power industry forum held in Yantai on Thursday, a center staff member told the Global Times.
At the start of the year, CNNC and the Yantai government signed an agreement to cooperate on a clean-energy composite supply platform and pool-type low-temperature reactor, according to the CNNC website.
The website said in September that CNNC had completed the preliminary design of a reactor called “Yanlong” based on the company’s safe and stable operation of pool-type experimental reactors over the past 50 years.
China would develop floating nuclear power stations during the 13th Five-Year Plan, Wang Yiren, deputy director of the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense, and vice chairman of the China Atomic Energy Authority, said in an interview with China National Radio published February last year.
China has already organized experts to investigate how this can be accomplished, he noted.
In 2016, CNNC said China plans to build 20 floating nuclear power stations to assist power and water supplies to the South China Sea islands.
Bohai Shipbuilding Heavy Industry Company, a company based in Liaoning Province, will build the first nuclear power platform, CNNC said.
Source: Global Times