The county-level city of Haiyang in Yantai, East China's Shandong province is continuing its efforts to develop strategic emerging and high-tech industries such as aerospace, photovoltaic, wind power, and nuclear energy. The development of nuclear energy in the city has brought tangible benefits to the city.

A demonstration project for the comprehensive use of nuclear energy in Haiyang, Shandong province, is being used as an example in China's 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) to better develop nuclear energy.

This year, a nuclear power plant located on the shoreline of the Yellow Sea in Haiyang completed its mission of providing clean heating to all urban districts in the city during the winter. The total area spans 5 million square meters and benefits more than 200,000 local residents in Haiyang, which marked the first commercial attempt in China to supply heat from traditional nuclear power.

Yantai is the first prefecture-level city in China to establish a nuclear power plant, and it issued its first guideline on the development of the nuclear power industry in 2008.

Haiyang Nuclear Power Plant is the first nuclear power plant to be put into operation in Shandong, and is operated by Shandong Nuclear Power Co, a subsidiary of the State Power Investment Corp. It also plans to build six one-million-kilowatt nuclear power plants and two expansion sites.

In 2021, Shandong released a five-year plan for the development of nuclear energy. According to the plan, the province will accelerate the construction of three nuclear power plans in Haiyang, Rongcheng and Zhaoyuan, and the second phase of the Haiyang Nuclear Power Plant will be promoted during the 14th Five-Year Plan period.

Since last year, Yantai has attached great importance to the development of clean energy, which was listed as one of the city's 16 key industrial chains, and nuclear energy has been regarded as an important factor for promoting dual-carbon development. The city also signed strategic cooperation agreements with a number of State-owned nuclear power enterprises, which will help accelerate Yantai's pace in the construction of "a city of nuclear power".

Haiyang Nuclear Power Plant is the first nuclear power plant put into operation in Shandong. [Photo/DaZhong News]