China starts construction on new nuclear power plant

Concrete pouring for the No. 1 unit of the Zhaoyuan Nuclear Power Plant in east China's Shandong Province began on Tuesday, marking the official start of full-scale construction of the facility.

The power plant is the first "Hualong One" nuclear plant in China that features a cooling tower.

"Hualong One" is a third-generation nuclear technology independently developed by China, and currently has the largest number of operational and under-construction units worldwide.

The No. 1 unit's nuclear island covers an area of over 2,000 square meters, equivalent to five basketball courts.

"The total concrete pour amounted to 8,823 cubic meters, taking approximately 55 hours to complete. We divided the pour into six sections, casting the entire structure in a single continuous operation," said Wei Jinsuo, head of the Zhaoyuan Nuclear Power Plant project at China Nuclear Industry Huaxing Construction Co.,Ltd.

A high-level water collection (HWC) cooling tower is being used for cooling the conventional island system, reducing the use of water by reusing cooling water. This is different to traditional, open-loop cooling systems where water is drawn from the sea, passed through the plant, and then returned.

"Hot water from the conventional island plant enters the cooling tower, then gets pumped to a water distributor. After reaching this distributor, the hot water is dispersed to the storage tank platform. Once cooled, the water flows to the collector, then to the pump house, and finally back into the conventional island," said Wang Xiaowei, head of the Zhaoyuan Nuclear Power Plant project at China Nuclear Power Engineering Co.,Ltd.

The project will include six "Hualong One" reactors, with a combined installed capacity of approximately 7.2 million kilowatts. Once complete, it will meet the annual electricity demand of about five million people for both residential and industrial use.

"Upon completion and commissioning, these six units will generate 50 billion kilowatt-hours of clean electricity annually. This will reduce standard coal consumption by approximately 15.27 million tons per year and cut carbon dioxide emissions by about 46.2 million tons -- equivalent to planting over 110,000 hectares of forest," said Yu Xiangdong, director of the Zhaoyuan Nuclear Power Plant project at China General Nuclear Power Corporation.

China starts construction on new nuclear power plant

China starts construction on new nuclear power plant

Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo arrived in Beijing on Sunday to pay an official visit to China from Jan. 25 to 28, at the invitation of Chinese Premier Li Qiang.

During the visit, Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet with the Finnish prime minister, while Chinese Premier Li and Chairman of China's National People's Congress Standing Committee Zhao Leji will hold talks and meet with Orpo, respectively, to conduct in-depth exchange of views on bilateral relations and issues of common concern.

Finland was among the first Western countries to recognize and establish diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China, and was the first European country to sign an inter-governmental trade agreement with China. Under the strategic guidance of the two heads of state in recent years, the future-oriented new-type cooperative partnership between the two countries has been deepened, and cooperation in various fields has been steadily advanced.

In 2025, bilateral trade between China and Finland exceeded 8 billion U.S. dollars in value, while mutual investment stock surpassed 23 billion U.S. dollars, reflecting sustained enthusiasm of enterprises from both sides for strengthening mutually beneficial cooperation.

During Orpo's visit, China's Ministry of Commerce will sign a memorandum of understanding with the Finnish side on strengthening the work of the China-Finland Committee for Innovative Business Cooperation, and enterprises from both sides will sign a number of business cooperation agreements, said a spokesperson for the ministry.

Orpo will be accompanied by executives from more than 20 Finnish companies spanning machinery, forestry, innovation, clean energy, food and other key sectors, according to the spokesperson.

China attaches great importance to the development of China-Finland relations, and stands ready to work with Finland to maintain close high-level exchanges, consolidate political mutual trust, strengthen economic and trade cooperation, promote people-to-people and cultural exchanges, foster mutual understanding and collaboration in multilateral affairs, and jointly elevate bilateral relations to a new height, said a spokesperson for China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Finnish PM arrives in Beijing for 4-day visit to China