Published on July 15, 2019.
Through an essay by Matsuoka Toyohito published in the monthly magazine WiLL, this article introduces the reality of China’s construction of third-generation reactors such as the EPR, AP1000, and Hualong One, as well as its effort to target the global market with a system and speed surpassing Europe, the United States, and Japan in next-generation reactor development. It records how CNNC and CGN’s plan to integrate their designs and actively deploy Hualong One in inland China and overseas is seen as a threat to countries seeking to export nuclear power plants.

July 15, 2019.
CNNC and CGN plan to integrate their designs and actively deploy them in inland China and overseas as a new Hualong One, and many view this as a threat to countries aiming to export nuclear power plants.
The following is a continuation of the previous chapter.
The ambition to dominate the world through nuclear power.
In Japan, the advanced boiling water reactor, or ABWR, first adopted at Unit 6 of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant, which began operation in 1996, is the latest reactor type among existing nuclear power plants, and there are also plans to build an advanced pressurized water reactor, or APWR.
On the other hand, at the development stage, there is the Japan Atomic Energy Agency’s high-temperature gas reactor, the High Temperature Engineering Test Reactor, or HTTR, with an output of 30,000 kW, and in addition, research on fast reactors and fusion reactors is also being advanced.
In China, in addition to construction of third-generation reactors such as the EPR, AP1000, and Hualong One, which is based on French design and improved in China’s own way with the policy of making it a centerpiece of overseas exports, a wide variety of efforts are being pursued ambitiously, including construction of next-generation high-temperature gas-cooled reactor, or HTGR, demonstration reactors and small modular reactors, or SMRs, as well as technological development of fast neutron reactors, or FNRs, thorium molten-salt reactors, or TMSRs, traveling wave reactors, or TWRs, and low-temperature heat-supply reactors, or LTHRs.
In particular, China’s efforts in next-generation reactor development are being carried out with a system and speed far surpassing those of Europe, the United States, and Japan, and they are attracting worldwide attention.
The EPR is the latest PWR from France’s former Areva, now Framatome, with an output of 1.66 million kW, and after Finland and France, in China, CGN invested 70 percent and Électricité de France, or EDF, invested 30 percent in 2007 to establish Taishan Nuclear Power Joint Venture Company; Unit 1 began construction in December 2009, and Unit 2 in April 2010.
The Flamanville nuclear power plant under construction in France has suffered construction delays due to troubles, but China overtook France and Finland, which had started earlier, and began power transmission on June 29 of this year.
Work is now proceeding toward commercial operation.
The AP1000 is the latest PWR designed by Westinghouse of the United States, with an output of 1.25 million kW, and in China, the company and SNPTC agreed to build two units each at the Sanmen Nuclear Power Plant in Zhejiang Province and the Haiyang Nuclear Power Plant in Shandong Province; Sanmen Unit 1 began construction in April 2009, and Haiyang Unit 1 in September 2009.
Sanmen Unit 1 began power transmission on June 30 of this year and is now preparing for commercial operation.
Furthermore, SNPTC has developed the CAP1400, an improved version of the AP1000 with output raised to 1.4 million kW, and plans to build the first unit at Rongcheng Shidaowan in Shandong Province.
Hualong One, or HL1000, is a third-generation reactor for which China holds intellectual property rights, and CNNC began construction of Units 5 and 6 at the Fuqing Nuclear Power Plant in Fujian Province in succession in May and December 2015.
CGN also developed a new reactor with a core design different from that of CNNC, and began construction of Units 3 and 4 at Fangchenggang in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in December 2015 and December 2016.
There are differences in safety systems and supply chains, but CNNC and CGN plan to integrate their designs and actively deploy them in inland China and overseas as a new Hualong One, and many view this as a threat to countries aiming to export nuclear power plants.