The world's first land-based commercial small modular reactor (SMR), Linglong One, completed its cold functional tests on Thursday in south China's island province of Hainan.
This marks a crucial step toward its reactor fuel loading and eventual commercial operation, according to its developer, the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC).
This milestone lays a solid foundation for the next phases of testing. The cold functional test serves as the reactor's first comprehensive "physical examination," ensuring its safe and stable performance, the corporation said.
Located in Hainan's Changjiang Li Autonomous County, Linglong One is globally significant as the first land-based commercial modular SMR to have passed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)'s safety review.
Following the tests, the project is scheduled to undergo hot functional tests and criticality tests, CNNC said.
Once operational, the project is expected to generate about 1 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, enough to meet the power demands of an estimated 526,000 households in Hainan. It is also projected to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by roughly 880,000 metric tons per year, equivalent to planting 7.5 million trees.
Small modular reactor Linglong One completes cold functional tests in Hainan
Northern China has launched full-scale clearing efforts to ensure smooth and safe traffic after multiple regions experienced the first snowfalls of the winter season.
In Inner Mongolia, snowfall began on Thursday night and continued through Friday morning in the northern and western parts of the autonomous region. Ordos City in the west experienced mild to moderate snow in most areas, with the northern part receiving the most snowfall of over five millimeters.
"The snow removal team has been working around the clock to clear snow and reduce slip hazards on sections prone to icing, including bridges, slopes, and curves. This aims to minimize the impacts of snowfall on road traffic," said Liu Feng, chief of a local highway maintenance station.
Snowfall in Jinan, capital of north China's Shandong Province, has been strengthening since 14:00 on Friday, with the local weather service upgrading the snowstorm warning signal from blue to yellow at 19:20 on the day.
Local authorities prepared over 1,670 snow removal machines for operation and immediately started clearing work as precipitation began.
Meanwhile, in north-central China's Gansu, temperatures in the rural Jishishan County dropped about 10 degrees Celsius as the rest of the province was largely affected by Friday's snowfall.
Gansu is a crucial passageway for traffic between China's eastern and western regions, so local authorities acted quickly to ensure highway safety.
"We applied deicing agents on sharp curves, steep slopes, and bridges, and increased patrols on roads in case any emergency situations may come up," said Che Yifan, deputy chief of a local highway maintenance station.
Snow also covered the Chinese capital Beijing on Friday, prompting emergency responses from local transportation authorities, with over 4,000 personnel and more than 2,600 pieces of machinery being dispatched to carry out the clearing effort.
Prompt clearing efforts begin amid season's first snowfall in northern China
