This Day, That Year

Editor’s Note: This year marks the 40th anniversary of China’s reform and opening-up policy.

Since Daya Bay Nuclear Power Plant in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, began operating in February 1994, it has been operating safely for 24 years. It is the country’s first commercial nuclear power station.

Besides the two units in the plant, Daya Bay is home to six nuclear reactors, which are now an important electricity provider for Guangdong province and Hong Kong.

It provides more than onefourth of Hong Kong’s annual electricity needs.

However, the country’s nuclear power development was put on hold after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan in 2011, with approval for new nuclear plants suspended and a nationwide safety review launched after the incident. The program resumed in 2012.

Currently, the country operates 37 nuclear reactors with 19 under construction, according to the National Energy Administration.

By the end of 2020, the country aims to have 58 gigawatts of nuclear power capacity in operation and at least 30 million kilowatts under construction. It will make China the country with the secondlargest capacity, behind the United States, in terms of nuclear power. Nuclear power currently contributes about 2 percent of China’s electricity, data from the China Electricity Council shows.

In November, the country’s first nuclear reactor using Hualong One technology, a domestically developed third-generation reactor design by China General Nuclear Power Group and China National Nuclear Corp, completed all its tests in Sichuan province.