Haiyang 2 Nuclear Plant: The largest high-tech cooperation project between China and the USA

Four AP1000 reactors are officially under construction in China after the pouring of first concrete for Haiyang 2.

A ceremony was held at the construction site on 21 June, attended by a plethora of company, state and union officials, as concrete was poured for the basement raft of the power generation unit.

The forthcoming reactor joins another AP1000 project at Haiyang as well as another two at Sanmen. Further contracts with Westinghouse for the design are expected with Chinese utilities and in future domestic firms will mass-produce the design under the lead of State Nuclear Power Technology Corporation.

This knowledge and technology transfer is essential to China's ambitions to become fully self-sufficient in nuclear power. It was described by officials as the largest high-tech cooperation project between China and the USA and a way they are tackling global warming while promoting economic development and changing to a clean-energy infrastructure.

The other AP1000 construction site has seen visible progress with the lifting in of the containment vessel bottom head of Sanmen 2. The first unit at the plant has also been built up with reactor building structures inside and a further ring of its containment vessel.