Reactor is domestic version of the Westinghouse AP1000 PWR First concrete was poured for Unit 3 on 28 June 2022 during an inaugural ceremony at the Sanmen site. Image courtesy CNEA. First concrete has been poured for a new third unit at the Sanmen nuclear power station in Zhejiang province, eastern China, according to the China Nuclear Energy Association (CNEA).

The Sanmen station is home to two commercially operational Westinghouse AP1000 units – Sanmen-1 and -2. They achieved commercial status in 2018.

The new unit at the site, Sanmen-3, will be of the CAP1000 design – the Chinese version of the AP-1000.

In April, the Chinese government approved the construction of four new CAP1000 units – Sanmen-3 and -4, and Haiyang-3 and -4.

The Haiyang nuclear power station in Shandong province, eastern China, also has two AP1000 units in commercial operation since 2018 and 2019.

The four commercial reactor units at Sanmen and Haiyang are currently the only ones using the Westinghouse-made AP1000 pressurised water reactor design in China.

According to China’s 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25), the government wants to have 70 GW of installed nuclear capacity by 2025, up from 51 GW at the end of 2020 and an increase of more than 40%, after failing to meet its previous target of having 58 GW of installed capacity by 2020.

According to data by the International Atomic Energy Agency, China has 54 large-scale nuclear reactor units in commercial operation. The Chinese fleet generated about 5% of the country’s electricity in 2021.