First criticality for Fuqing 1 28 July 2014 28 July 2014

The first unit of a new four-reactor station in China's southeastern Fujian province, Fuqing 1, reached first criticality at 5am on 24 July.

The 1080MW CPR-1000 reactor started construction in November 2008. The reactor is operated by utility CNNC.

To the north along the coast is the Ningde nuclear power plant, whose second CPR-1000 started up in January 2014. However, it is operated by rival utility China General Nuclear Corporation.

It is the fourth nuclear station to start up in China in the past 24 months, after Yangjiang 1 in Guangdong province started up in December, Hongyanye 1 started up in February 2013 and Ningde 1 started up in December 2012. Another CPR-1000-based station, Fangjiashan 1 in northern Zhejiang province, also operated by CNNC, is also expected to start up soon.

CNNC chairman Sun Qin said in March 2014 that Chinese utilities would exceed the 58 GW of nuclear power generation planned to be installed by 2020, according to media reports. With Fuqing 1, there is about 18 GW of nuclear power plants in operation; a further 30GW is expected to be operational by 2018.

Image: Fuqing 1 main control room. Image from CNNC