Unit 3 of China’s Fuqing NPP in Fujian province began commercial operation on 24 October, project operator China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) said. CNNC began construction of the 1,000MWe CPR1000 in December 2010 and the unit was connected to the national power grid for the first time on 7 September.
The unit reached first criticality in July 2016. There are six units at the Fuqing site, three of which are with three now in commercial operation and three under construction. Fuqing 1 began commercial operation in November 2014 and Fuqing 2 in October 2015. Fuqing 4 is expected to begin operating in 2017, CNNC said in a statement. These four are 1,087MWe Chinese-designed CPR1000 units but Fuqing 5 and 6 will have Hualong One reactors. These are scheduled to be completed in 2019 and 2020. The first nuclear concrete for unit 5 was poured in May 2015 and for unit 6 in December 2015.
The Hualong One is the first third-generation design for which China owns all intellectual property rights. It incorporates elements of CNNC's ACP1000 and China General Nuclear's ACPR1000+ reactor designs. Fuqing NPP is being jointly constructed and operated by CNNC (51%), China Huadian Corporation (39%) and the Fujian Investment & Development Co Ltd. (10%). The cost of the facility has been put at about CNY100bn ($14.7bn).
