Construction of the main building of the auxiliary installation for unit 1 of China’s Lianjiang NPP in Guangdong Province has been completed – the first of two 1,250 MWe CAP1000 reactors planned for the first phase of the project – according to China Nuclear Energy Association (CNEA). The reactor pressure vessel was installed in March.
Shanghai Nuclear Engineering Design & Research Institute (SNERDI), a subsidiary of State Power Investment Corp (SPIC), said it had set up a dedicated team for the ancillary building, “fully leveraging the advantages of integrated construction and installation to ensure the smooth topping-out of the main structure of the powerhouse”. This provided “important practical experience for the subsequent construction of nuclear power units and laid a solid foundation for the safe and high-quality construction of the Lianjiang nuclear power project”.
Construction of the first two CAP1000 reactors was approved by China’s State Council in September 2022. Excavation works for the units began in the same month, with the pouring of first concrete for the foundation of unit 1 completed at the end of September 2023 and for unit 2 in April 2024. Lianjiang unit 1 is expected to be completed and put into operation in 2028.
According to CNEA, once all six CAP1000 units planned at the site are completed, annual electricity generation will be about 70.2 TWh, which will reduce standard coal consumption by more than 20m tonnes. It will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by more than 52m tonnes, sulphur dioxide by approximately 171,000 tonnes and nitrogen oxides by approximately 149,000 tonnes.
