Fuel loading begins on world's first pebble-bed modular HTGR demonstration plant

The company introduced a flexible work schedule for its employees, disinfected factories regularly and distributed face masks and ethanol for workers, providing a safe work environment for staff members.Officials said that to date, no infection has been found in the company.

The HTGR demonstration nuclear power plant is in Rongcheng city, East China's Shandong province. With its designed electric power being 200MW, the reactor has twin reactor modules, each driving a single steam turbine. CNNC's Chinergy is the main contractor of the project. The HTGR demonstration plant started construction on December 9, 2012 and completed cold and hot functional testing on March 29 this year. It received the operating license from the National Nuclear Safety Administration in August and its first connection to the gird is scheduled later this year.

The high-temperature gas-cooled reactor adopts spherical nuclear fuel elements, which are the most important basis for the inherent safety of high-temperature gas-cooled reactors, and are the key core technology. The element is manufactured by CNNC’s China North Nuclear Fuel Corporation. At present, China has the ability to continuously provide high-quality high-temperature gas-cooled reactor spherical nuclear fuel elements for power plants.