On January 30th, the world's first Hualong One nuclear reactor begins operations, indicating that China is now one of the handful countries having third-generation nuclear technologies. CNNC Fujian Fuqing Nuclear Power Co., Ltd. sent a letter of thanks, appreciating Shanghai Electric’s technological contribution for the smooth progress of Hualong One.

Hualong One reactor internals, the most critical part of a reactor, is designed to the highest standards in the world, which comprise 13,487 components of 236 categories with a height of 11.036 meters, weight of 160 tons and largest diameter of 4.188 meters.

Compared with internals used in Gen II reactors like M310, they are much more complicated in production and precise in structure. Essential manufacturing technologies ranges from processing, soldering, testing and assembly that shall be performed with high precision, so it is seen as the peak of China’s nuclear reactor in terms of equipment R&D and manufacturing.

Shanghai No.1 Machine Tool Works Co., Ltd. (“No.1 Machine Tool” for short), an affiliate of Shanghai Electric, spent 33 months on manufacturing the internals since the project was started in 2015. It tackled 71 process-and-test-related difficulties and made a couple of innovations including 2 technologies on material localization, 5 on soldering, 4 on testing and 7 on processing. It has obtained 10 invention patents, which makes it possible to fully localize all links related with Fuqing No.5 reactor internals from manufacturing, processing, assembly, testing, soldering to tooling design and manufacturing for inspection & acceptance.

Shanghai Electric also provided many other products to the No.5 unit, such as the bridge crane, auxiliary crane, charging pump, secondary and third-level pumps (safety injection pump, safety sprayer pump, residual heat removal pump) and condensate pump, elevators for factories, 1E thermometer*, electric control box of 1E instruments*, regulating valves for nuclear facilities.

In April 2020, Made in Shanghai: New Achievements was published, composed by Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization and people.com.cn to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of People’s Republic of China and the liberation of Shanghai. The chapter titled “Critical Equipment Made After Decades of Devotion and Hualong Internals Back China’s Nuclear Development” dived into how No.1 Machine Tool tried their best to remove obstacles in Hualong One project, and acknowledged their courage, diligence and competence in implementing national major tasks as a large state-owned enterprise.

It is reported that every unit of Hualong One can generate nearly 10 billion kWh of electricity every year, which is enough for the production and households of 1 million people in a moderately developed country on a yearly basis. Moreover, it is equivalent to reducing standard coal consumption by 3.12 million tons and CO2 emission 8.16 tons.

(Note: products tagged with “*” are by Shanghai Electric Group Co., Ltd rather than by Shanghai Electric Group Company Limited.)