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

The securities industry should provide investors with a wider range of products more conducive to long-term investments, said Wu Qing, chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) at the 8th Member Congress of the China Securities Association on Saturday.

Noting that stocks and funds account for only about 15 percent of Chinese residents' assets, the chairman emphasized that the country can harness the huge potential demand for asset management and wealth management.

"We must proactively cater to the diverse wealth management needs of investors with different risk appetites, investment scales, and investment horizons, providing more abundant and targeted products and services which are more conducive to long-term and value investments. We must work together with investors for mutual benefit and win-win outcomes, jointly participating in and sharing the fruits of economic and capital market development," said Wu.

As investor confidence and market resilience have significantly strengthened, the total market capitalization of A-shares -- stocks traded on Chinese mainland markets -- exceeded 100 trillion yuan (about 14 trillion U.S. dollars) for the first time in August.

Amid the growth, Wu stressed that stability remains the bottom line for the industry, calling on institutions to strengthen compliance and risk control while focusing on risks in areas such as margin trading, securities lending, and over-the-counter business to prevent illegal interference by shareholders and safeguard the rights and interests of small and medium-sized investors.

According to CSRC policy guidelines, the commission will appropriately optimize supervision of high-quality institutions to support their improvement in capital efficiency, while for a few problematic securities firms, it will strictly supervise and punish them according to law, resolutely clear out non-compliant shareholders, and maintain market order and stability.

China's top securities regulator urges abundant long-term investment products