Bloomberg reported that China's Shidaowan Nuclear Power Plant in Shandong Province began commercial operations and is the world's first high-temperature gas-cooled nuclear power plant.
China Huaneng Group's 200-megawatt plant in Shidao Bay is the world's first high-temperature gas-cooled reactor, the National Energy Administration said in a message posted on WeChat. The reactor received a permit for commercial operation after 168 hours of continuous operation.
Unlike conventional nuclear power plants, the unit uses helium instead of water heating to generate electricity, which is an important consideration for inland power plants as there are growing concerns about droughts caused by climate change. It's also designed to shut down automatically when something goes wrong, and unlike some older systems, which require power to trigger safety measures, it was this situation that led to the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan in 2011.
The construction of this power plant lasted more than ten years. Construction began in 2012 and power generation began in 2021.
China is home to 25 of the 61 nuclear reactors under construction and is expected to spend as much as $440 billion over the next 15 years on new power plants, surpassing the United States as the largest producer of atomic power.
With growing concerns about energy security and fossil fuel emissions, nuclear energy is in the midst of a global recovery. The United States and 21 other countries, including France, the United Kingdom and Ukraine, signed a declaration over the weekend committing to triple global nuclear power capacity by mid-century. China did not sign the statement.