Kang Rixin, managering director of China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), said on June 6 that China has made major progress in the second generation of the self-designed nuclear power plant.

Following the completion of the initial design of CNP 1000, a China's self-designed million-kilowatt PWR (pressurized water reactor) nuclear power plant, by Shanghai Nuclear Engineering Research and Design Institute, the preliminary design of CNP 1500 taken by Beijing Institute of Nuclear Engineering is also nearing completion. So far, China has formed a series of nuclear power plants such as CNP 300, CNP 600 as well as CNP 1000/CNP 1500 with Chinese intellectual property rights.

In terms of economic efficiency, the power cost could be brought under five US cents per kilowatt-hour once the CNP 1000 were put into mass operation. According to the evaluation by experts, CNP 1000 is superior to all the domestic nuclear power plants in operation, and some of its indexes are even better than those of the second-generation international nuclear power plants in terms of performance, economic efficiency as well as safety.

The nuclear power units built and those to be completed stand at 19, with the total installed capacity hitting 16 million kw.

By People's Daily Online