China People’s Daily reported on December 20, 2021: The No. 1 reactor of the Huaneng Shidaowan Nuclear Power Station Demonstration Project, Chinese major national science and technology project with completely independent intellectual property rights in the world and the world’s first fourth-generation nuclear power unit, was successfully connected to the grid to generate electricity on the 20th. This marks the China fourth-generation commercial high-temperature gas-cooled reactor has been officially put into operation.

The group photo of our staff, staff of Shidaowan Nuclear Power Plant and experts and teachers from Tsinghua University

The group photo of our staff and experts and teachers from Tsinghua University

According to the People’s Daily, the Shidaowan High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor Demonstration Project with an installed capacity of 200,000 kilowatts was jointly constructed by China Huaneng, Tsinghua University, and China National Nuclear Corporation. It is a new generation nuclear power project that is completely independently designed, constructed, commissioned, and operated by China, which is also the world’s first pebble-bed modular high-temperature gas-cooled reactor. It has the advantages of good inherent safety, high power generation efficiency, strong environmental adaptability, and wide range of uses, etc. It has been commercially applied in fields such as nuclear power generation, combined heat, power and cooling, and high-temperature process heat. It has broad prospects and will play an active role in optimizing Chinese energy structure and achieving the “double carbon” goal.

There are more than 500 upstream and downstream units participating in the R&D and construction of this major national science and technology project, with more than 10,000 people engaged in technical research and engineering construction. The project has overcome many world problems and key technology in the field of nuclear power, making the equipment localization rate reach 93.4%. Among them, there are more than 2,200 pieces (sets) of equipment used for the first time and more than 600 pieces of innovative equipment.

The magnetic levitation power amplifier developed in early 2021 successfully replaced the imported electronic control system in the “High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor Demonstration Station”, a major national science and technology project. For nuclear power applications, the core equipment of high-temperature gas-cooled reactors with safety features of the fourth-generation nuclear energy system is known as the “heart” of high-temperature gas-cooled reactors. Its function is to provide sufficient flow of helium through the primary loop system to take away the heat of the reactor core products during reactor start-up, power operation and shutdown.