China has started construction of Unit 2 at the Zhaoyuan nuclear power project in Shandong Province. Developed by China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN), the project will become the country’s first Hualong One nuclear power plant designed with cooling towers.
The start of concrete work marks the beginning of the main construction phase for the plant’s first two units. The project is designed to support cleaner electricity generation while also opening the door to nuclear heating and industrial steam.
Unit 2 began its first major concrete pour over the weekend, according to the Global Times. The first phase of the Zhaoyuan project will include two Hualong One reactors.
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Construction of Unit 1 started earlier, on November 18, 2025. The latest work on Unit 2 includes the reactor building’s foundation, which requires around 8,800 cubic meters of concrete in a continuous pour expected to take about 60 hours.
The Zhaoyuan project is being developed by CGN and will be its 10th nuclear power base in China. The full site is planned to eventually include six Hualong One units.
Hualong One is China’s domestically developed Generation III nuclear reactor technology. The Global Times reported that China is among a small group of countries with indigenous Generation III nuclear power technology.
A key feature of the project is its large natural-draft cooling towers. Each reactor will be paired with a 203-meter-tall cooling tower.
These towers will move heat into the atmosphere instead of relying on the sea as the main heat sink. This design could make the plant suitable for locations where traditional seawater-based cooling is less practical.
Once all six units are operating, the Zhaoyuan site is expected to generate around 50 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity each year. That would be enough to meet the annual electricity needs of more than 5 million people, according to CGN’s post cited by the Global Times.
The project is also being connected to the Jiaodong Peninsula clean-heating network. Plans include exploring nuclear heating and using nuclear energy to produce industrial steam.
The benefits described for the completed project will depend on all planned units being built and operating as expected. The six-unit development is a long-term project, so its full electricity, heating and emissions benefits will not be available immediately.
The large cooling towers and reactor systems also add major construction and engineering requirements. Safety, construction progress and long-term operation will remain important factors as the project moves forward.
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The Zhaoyuan project reflects China’s wider push to expand nuclear power as part of its low-carbon energy plans. Energy researcher Lin Boqiang, director of the China Center for Energy Economics Research at Xiamen University, told the Global Times that China has moved from importing nuclear technology to developing its own designs, construction capabilities and industrial supply chain.
China approved 46 nuclear power units during the 2021–2025 period, according to National Energy Administration data cited in the report. The country’s growing nuclear fleet shows how nuclear power is becoming a larger part of its long-term energy strategy, even though it currently provides about 5 percent of China’s energy mix.
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