China News Service, Yantai, October 21 (Reporter Xie Yiguan) In winter in the north, heating often comes from coal-fired boilers. Today, China has an extra kind of warmth.
This kind of warmth comes from the steam deep in the nuclear power plant, and enters thousands of households after multiple heat exchanges and long-distance transportation. It has no soot or ash, but it still makes the room warm as spring.
Recently, reporters from China News Network walked into the Haiyang Nuclear Power Station of Shandong Nuclear Power Co., Ltd. and felt this warm power.
In 2019, the first phase of my country's first commercial nuclear energy heating demonstration project, "Warm Nuclear No. 1", was put into operation in Haiyang, Shandong, supplying heat to the surrounding 700,000 square meters for the first time.
Two years later, the second phase of the 4.5 million square meter project was put into operation; in November 2023, the third phase project was put into operation, creating the first cross-prefecture-level nuclear energy heating in China. The zero-carbon heat source flows from Yantai Haiyang to Weihai Rushan.
The picture shows Nuanhe No.1. Photo courtesy.
Today, "Warm Core No. 1" has completed seven heating seasons, providing zero-carbon heating in winter for 400,000 residents and 13.5 million square meters of area in Haiyang and Rushan. It has provided a total of 19.73 million GJ of heat, which is equivalent to saving about 1.78 million tons of raw coal consumption and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by about 3.25 million tons.
According to Shandong Nuclear Power, compared with before nuclear energy heating, the average PM10 concentration during the heating season in Haiyang City dropped by 43%, and the average nitrogen dioxide concentration dropped by 13.7%; the average PM10 concentration during the heating season in Rushan City dropped by 8.7%, and the average nitrogen dioxide concentration dropped by 12.8%. Part of the heat that would have been discharged into the sea with the circulating water has become a warm current flowing into the city.
Haiyang has thus become the country's first large-scale "zero-carbon" heating city, and Haiyang Nuclear Power has become the world's largest nuclear energy cogeneration base.
Regarding the topic of nuclear energy heating safety that is of public concern, Miao Zhengqiang, deputy chief engineer of Shandong Nuclear Power Co., Ltd., said that in the engineering design, the heating process is completed through a multi-stage loop. During the entire process, there is only the transfer of heat and no exchange of media. At the same time, the nuclear power plant's external heating circuit is also equipped with highly sensitive radiation monitoring instruments to monitor the radioactivity level of the circuit 24 hours a day, ensuring the safety and reliability of nuclear energy heating.
Today, the territory of "Warm Core No. 1" is still expanding. According to planning expectations, Haiyang Nuclear Power Units 3 and 4 are expected to be fully operational in 2027. By then, "Warm Core No. 1" will realize the warming of Qingdao and help build a cross-regional zero-carbon heating network on the Jiaodong Peninsula. The long-term heating capacity of the project is expected to reach 200 million square meters.
The warmth from nuclear energy not only flows to the Jiaodong Peninsula.
In Haiyan, Zhejiang, local residents have become the beneficiaries of the first nuclear energy heating project in the south since the end of 2021. Qinshan Nuclear Power and Haiyan County have worked together for five years and have completed the development and construction of a nuclear energy heating market of approximately 750,000 square meters.
In Dalian, Liaoning, the Hongyanhe Nuclear Power Plant Nuclear Energy Heating Demonstration Project will be officially put into operation for heating in November 2022. Nearly 20,000 residents of Hongyanhe Town have access to nuclear energy for heating.
From coal heating to zero-carbon heating, China's nuclear heating has replaced coal soot and ash, keeping blue skies and white clouds, and has become a path for clean energy transformation.
