Worldwide First Reactor to Start Up in 2013, in China

The first unit of the Hongyanhe nuclear power plant was connected to the Chinese electricity grid in Liaoning province on 17 February 2013. The first phase of the “first nuclear power plant and largest energy project in northeast China” is to comprise four 1000 MW units at a cost of 50 billion yuan (about €5.9 billion or USD7.9 billion), according to China Daily. The construction of this standardized CPR1000 started in August 2007 and was scheduled to come on line by October 2012. The four units of the first phase of the project are now to be completed by the end of 2015, one year later than previously planned. Construction of the second phase, which was stalled after the Fukushima accident in March 2011, comprises two additional CPR1000 units and should be connected to the grid by the end of 2016. The site is the first Chinese nuclear power plant to use seawater desalination to provide cooling water.