This Day, That Year

Editor’s note: This year marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of New China.

On Oct 16, 1964, China conducted its first nuclear test.

It marked China as the fifth country to successfully detonate an atomic bomb, following the United States, the United Kingdom, the former Soviet Union and France.

In June 1967, the country’s first hydrogen bomb was successfully exploded in the Lop Nur Desert in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

The explosive power was 150 times that of the atomic bomb the US dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, during World War II. It marked a breakthrough in China’s nuclear development.

In July 1996, China conducted its 45th and last nuclear test. The next day, it began its pledged moratorium on nuclear tests. The same year, China signed the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.

In the following year, China ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention.

An item from Oct 17, 2014, from China Daily showed retirees from the former State-owned Factory No 221 commemorating in Hefei, Anhui province, the 50th anniversary of the explosion of China’s first atomic bomb. The bomb was developed and tested at the factory in Qinghai province.

Since the country’s plans to build a nuclear power plant in the early 1970s, development of the industry has been brisk.

In 1981, China finally approved the construction of its first nuclear power plant at Qinshan with a Chinese-made pressurized water reactor boasting a capacity of 300 megawatts.

The country’s first nuclear station was connected to the power grid on Dec 15, 1991.

China is now a pioneer in the nuclear power sector and has been accelerating construction of nuclear power plants. There are more than 40 reactors in operation and another 20 under construction, according to the Ministry of Environmental Protection.

By the end of next year, China aims to have reactors producing 58 gigawatts of power, and plants under construction with output capacities of 30 GW.