Fangchenggang‑4 Construction Start in China

Fangchenggang-4 Construction Start in China

The China General Nuclear Corporation (CGN) began construction of unit 4 of the Fangchenggang nuclear power plant on 23 December 2016, with the start of pouring of the basemat concrete. The Fangchenggang project will have three reactor designs at the site:

Units 1&2 being CPR-1000; Units 3&4 being the HPR-1000 or Hualong One design; Units 5&6 are planned to be Westinghouse AP1000s.

Unit 3 construction began in January 2016. Located on the Qisha peninsula in Guangxi province 45 km from the Vietnamese border, the start on Fangchenggang-4 marks the fourth Hualong One under construction in the country. The HPR-1000 is based on the CGN ACPR-1000 design, a more advanced version of CGN’s Generation II CPR-1000 and the China National Nuclear Corporation’s ACP-1000 designs. CGN announced in September 2016 that it planned to submit the Hualong One reactor for Generic Design Assessment to the UK’s Office of Nuclear Regulation, aiming for approval within five years.

The pouring of concrete at Fangchenggang-4 brings to 21 the number of reactors under construction in China, with 36 reactors in operation.