on january 10, 2019, unit 2 of the haiyang nuclear power plant in china's shandong province has completed 168 hours of full-power continuous operation and is now deemed to be in commercial operation. it becomes the fourth ap1000 unit in china to reach the milestone.
construction of sanmen 1, in zhejiang province, began in april 2009, while first concrete for sanmen 2 was poured in december 2009. construction of haiyang 1 and 2 began in september 2009 and june 2010, respectively.
sanmen 1 was the world's first ap1000 to start up, achieving first criticality - a sustained chain reaction - on 22 june last year and grid connection on 2 july. it reached full power operation for the first time on 14 august and entered commercial operation on 21 september.
unit 1 of the haiyang plant attained first criticality on 8 august and was grid connected on 17 august. that unit began commercial operation on 22 october.
sanmen unit 2 attained first criticality on 17 august and was connected to the grid on 24 august. the reactor entered commercial operation on 5 november.
haiyang 2 achieved first criticality on 29 september and was connected to the grid on 13 october.
together, haiyang units 1 and 2 will provide some 20 twh of electricity to the grid annually, sufficient to meet one-third of household demand in shandong province.
with the start of commercial operation of haiyang 2, mainland china now has 46 power reactors in operation with a combined installed capacity of more than 45 gwe.