China starts first nuclear power plant since Fukushima

China’s 50 billion yuan (HK$62 billion) Hongyanhe nuclear plant started operations on Sunday, local media reported, marking the first nuclear power plant to be commissioned since the radiation crisis at Japan’s Fukushima plant in 2011.

The start of the Hongyanhe plant comes after Beijing approved a nuclear power safety and a development schedule for the industry in October, effectively lifting a 20-month ban on new projects in place since an earthquake crippled the Fukushima Daiichi plant in Japan in 2011.

The first unit of the Hongyanhe nuclear power station, located in China’s northeast Liaoning province, went into operation on Sunday afternoon, China Daily reported on Monday.

With the new plant in operation, China now has 16 working reactors with more than 12GW of total generating capacity. It is in the middle of a massive expansion programme to boost nuclear capacity to 58GW by 2020.

The first phase of the Hongyanhe plant, which will have a total of four power generation units, is expected to be completed by the end of 2015, bringing its total annual power generation to 30 billion kWh.

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