Unit 2 of Zhejiang Sanao Nuclear Power Project completed its first nuclear fuel loading

China News Service, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, November 2 (Hu Fengsheng, Chi Tingting) Unit 2 of CGN's Zhejiang San'ao Nuclear Power Project completed its first nuclear fuel loading on November 2, marking that the unit has officially entered a new stage of nuclear operation and commissioning. San'ao Nuclear Power has taken another key step towards the goal of fully completing the first phase of the project and putting it into operation for power generation.

Semi-automatic operation equipment was used for this loading. After the staff completed the preparation of the fuel loading steps, they imported the program into the industrial control system of the refueling machine. Professional fuel operators controlled the equipment and transferred 177 sets of fuel assemblies from the spent fuel pool fuel grid to the reactor core. It is worth mentioning that this loading operation used a floating light gun independently developed by China General Nuclear Power Group, which provided underwater lighting conditions for operations inside the reactor core and effectively ensured the progress of the loading work.

On November 1, CGN Zhejiang Sanao Nuclear Power Project. Photo by Guo Lei

The San'ao Nuclear Power Project plans to build six "Hualong One" nuclear power units, which will be constructed in three phases. Currently, four units have been approved. After all six units are completed, the annual power generation capacity is expected to exceed 54 billion kilowatt-hours, which is close to 80% of the current total annual electricity consumption in Wenzhou City. It can equivalently reduce the consumption of standard coal by more than 16.35 million tons per year and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by nearly 50 million tons. Sufficient clean energy will provide a solid guarantee for the computing power hub, smart economy and high-quality development of the Yangtze River Delta.