Yangtze River Delta's First "Hualong One" Nuclear Power Unit Successfully Grid-Connected for Power Generation

(Reporter Li Yucheng) According to China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN), at 5:28 PM on March 12, the first “Hualong One” nuclear power unit in the Yangtze River Delta region—the No. 1 unit of the Zhejiang Sanao Nuclear Power Project—successfully connected to the grid for the first time, generating its first kilowatt-hour of electricity. This marks that the unit has officially gained the ability to supply power to the grid, taking a key step toward commercial operation.

The No. 1 unit of the Sanao Nuclear Power Project began construction on December 31, 2020. After grid connection, on-site verification confirmed that the unit is operating well, and all technical indicators meet design expectations. Next, the unit will enter the load trial operation phase, with plans to increase power and conduct various performance tests. It is expected to officially start power generation in the first half of 2026.

Currently, the Yangtze River Delta region is seeing the emergence of leading artificial intelligence companies such as DeepSeek. The intelligent economy is thriving, and explosive growth in computing power demand is continuously increasing energy consumption. For the first time, the “computing and electricity collaboration” was included in the government work report at the National Two Sessions this year, explicitly implementing new infrastructure projects such as ultra-large-scale intelligent computing clusters and computing-electrical collaboration.

“As an important part of energy security in the Yangtze River Delta, the Sanao Nuclear Power Project plans to build six ‘Hualong One’ nuclear units, with three already under construction,” said Du Yanhui, Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of CGN Cangnan Nuclear Power Co., Ltd. After all units are completed, the annual power generation capacity is expected to exceed 54 billion kWh, close to the current total electricity consumption of Wenzhou City. It can meet the annual electricity needs of over 5 million people, reduce coal consumption by more than 16.35 million tons annually, and cut carbon dioxide emissions by about 50 million tons, equivalent to planting over 120,000 hectares of trees. The steady progress of the Sanao Nuclear Power Project will continue to provide clean energy support for the green and low-carbon transformation and smart economic development of the Yangtze River Delta.

During the construction process, digitalization and intelligent technologies have been widely applied. In terms of digital and intelligent construction, the project has fully developed a “smart construction site” for nuclear power, achieving visualized, automated, and intelligent management of work sites, reducing manual labor by about 700,000 work hours annually. It has developed and deployed the country’s first nuclear power plant radiographic film digital management system, integrating radiographic film digitization, AI intelligent evaluation, and smart defect detection functions, achieving full-process digitalization. During the reactor island installation phase, over 40,000 on-site pipeline radiographic films were used, with defect detection and smart comparison accuracy rates exceeding 95%. In advanced construction technology, domestic welding machines and supporting processes were fully applied for main pipe welding, achieving breakthroughs in core equipment and process independence. Additionally, the innovative use of “Lego-style” detachable prefabricated retaining wall modules was introduced in the CGN “Hualong One” project for the first time, with 62-meter-long wall components prefabricated and quickly assembled on-site, effectively saving construction costs and supporting quality improvement and efficiency in nuclear power projects.