Another Nuclear Reactor Construction Start in China

WNISR, 11 November 2020

Construction start of Taipingling-2 on 15 October 2020 has been reported by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Power Reactor Information System (PRIS). The reactor, also called Huizhou-2 and owned by CGN Power (part of China General Nuclear Power Corporation or CGNPC), is located in Guangdong province.

This is the second construction start in China in 2020 and the third in the world, with Turkey starting to build Akkuyu-2 in April 2020.

Construction start is considered to be the first pouring of basemat concrete, but this has not yet been confirmed by the Chinese builder for Taipingling-2. As of 10 November 2020, CGN had yet to report construction start on its website. However, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment shows the unit as under construction on a Chinese language map.

As WNISR2020 reported, there has been some uncertainty over reactor construction in China for some time. Construction of Taipingling-1 began in December 2019.

Phase 1 of the Taipingling project is based on the Hualong One or HPR-1000 reactor design. While two reactors have been approved for construction, media reports indicate that a total of six reactors are planned for the site. Based on CGN’s ACPR-1000 design, the Hualong One is a more advanced version of CGN’s Generation II CPR-1000 and CNNC’s ACP-1000 designs. Construction start of Taipingling–2 brings to eight the number of Hualong-design reactors under construction in China, following the construction start of Zhangzhou-2 on 4 September 2020, and to 16 the number of reactors under construction in China. This is close to a third of the 50 units currently under construction in the world.