The construction of the Yebatan Hydropower Station, an important project for optimizing China's energy structure, is in full swing as the first generator stator was successfully installed on Wednesday.
The Yebatan Hydropower Station is located at the junction of Baiyu County in southwest China's Sichuan Province and Konjo County in neighboring Xizang Autonomous Region. With a total installed capacity of 2,240 MW, it will be the largest hydropower station on the upper reaches of the Jinsha River upon completion of its construction.
The 15.6-meter diameter stator, a core component of the hydropower generator, was lowered into the designated area on Wednesday, paving the way for the assembly of the first generating unit.
After completing following installation work such as bolt tightening, testing, and calibration, installation of the rotor and other turbine components will be commenced.
The project consists of a dam structure, a flood discharge structure and a water diversion and power generation system. It is expected to start operation of its first batch of generating units by the end of 2025.
"The Yebatan Hydropower Station, with the approval of its construction in 2016, presents unique challenges due to its high altitude, cold climate, ultra-high arch damming, high ground stress and large burial depth, and features large-span underground workshops. We've applied many advanced technologies and developed a smart management platform to ensure its construction quality. We aim to commission the first generating units by the end of next year," Liu Qiang, executive director of the Yebatan branch of China Huadian Corporation said on Tuesday.
The dam has been built to a height of 171 meters so far and will ultimately stand at 217 meters. It is China's highest-altitude double-curved arch dam hydropower station under construction.
Once operational, the Yebatan Hydropower Station is expected to generate an average of 10.2 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, saving 3.99 million tons of standard coal and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 7.37 million tons.
The clean energy generated will be transmitted to central China via the world's first large-capacity hydropower-photovoltaic hybrid DC transmission line -- the Jinshang-Hubei ±800 kV UHV DC transmission project.
China's mega hydropower station completes installation of first generator stator
A video featuring a former member of Unit 731, a notorious Japanese germ-warfare unit during World War II (WWII), was released on Thursday in northeast China's Harbin, revealing details of how the unit used meteorological data to conduct horrific bacterial experiments on human beings.
The video was released by the Exhibition Hall of Evidence of Crimes Committed by Unit 731 of the Japanese Imperial Army, in which former Unit 731 member Tsuruo Nishijima detailed how the unit used meteorological data to carry out a bacterial dispersal experiment.
The video was recorded in 1997 by Japanese scholar Fuyuko Nishisato and donated to the exhibition hall in 2019, according to the hall, which was built on the former site of the headquarters of Unit 731 in Harbin, the capital city of Heilongjiang Province.
Jin Shicheng, director of the Department of Publicity, Education and Exhibition of the exhibition hall, said that Nishijima joined Unit 731 in October 1938 and served in the unit's meteorological squad. The squad was not a simple observation section but rather an auxiliary force supporting the unit's field human experiments by measuring wind direction, wind speed, and other conditions to ensure optimal experimental results, according to Jin.
Nishijima confirmed in the footage that "the meteorological squad had to be present at every field experiment." He testified to the "rainfall experiments" conducted by Unit 731, which involved aircraft releasing bacterial agents at extremely low altitudes.
At a field-testing site in Anda City, Heilongjiang, Unit 731 aircraft descended to about 50 meters above the ground. They sprayed bacterial culture liquids onto "maruta" -- human test subjects -- who were tied to wooden stakes. Each experiment involved about 30 people, spaced roughly 5 meters apart. After the experiments, the victims were loaded into sealed trucks and transported back to the unit, where their symptoms and disease progression were recorded over a period of several days.
"Unit 731's bacterial weapons were dropped by aircraft from a height of 50 meters in the open air. Therefore, the meteorological squad needed to observe wind direction and speed, which directly affected the precision and accuracy of the bacterial weapons deployment," said Jin.
Nishijima recounted the harrowing experience of the human test subjects.
"They were fully aware that inhaling the substances would certainly lead to death, so they closed their eyes and held their breath to avoid breathing them in. Their resistance prevented the experiment from proceeding. To compel them to comply, they were forced at gunpoint to open their mouths and lift their heads," said Nishijima.
These experiments, disguised as "scientific research," were in fact systematic tests of biological warfare weapons conducted by the Japanese military. The data generated from these inhumane activities became "research findings" shared among the Japanese army medical school, the medical community, and the military at large.
"At that time, the entire Japanese medical community tacitly approved, encouraged, and even participated in the criminal acts of Unit 731. The unit comprised members from Japan's medical and academic sectors who served the Japanese war of aggression against China. Thus, Unit 731 was not just a military unit but represented an organized and systematic criminal enterprise operating from the top down," said Jin.
Unit 731 was a top-secret biological and chemical warfare research base established in Harbin as the nerve center for Japanese biological warfare in China and Southeast Asia during WWII.
At least 3,000 people were used for human experiments by Unit 731, and Japan's biological weapons killed more than 300,000 people in China.
Video offers details of Japan's germ-warfare crimes in northeast China
