HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Daya Nuclear Power Plant () is a nuclear power plant located in
Daya Bay Daya Bay (), formerly known as Bias Bay, is a bay of the South China Sea on the south coast of Guangdong Province in China. It is bordered by Shenzhen's Dapeng Peninsula to the west and Huizhou to the north and east. History The bay was a hideo ...
in Longgang District, along the eastern extremity of
Shenzhen Shenzhen (; ; ; ), also historically known as Sham Chun, is a major sub-provincial city and one of the special economic zones of China. The city is located on the east bank of the Pearl River estuary on the central coast of southern province ...
,
Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...
, China; and to the north east of
Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...
. Daya Bay has two 944 MWe PWR
nuclear reactor A nuclear reactor is a device used to initiate and control a fission nuclear chain reaction or nuclear fusion reactions. Nuclear reactors are used at nuclear power plants for electricity generation and in nuclear marine propulsion. Heat fr ...
s based on the Framatome ANP French 900 MWe three cooling loop design (M310), were both commissioned in 1993 and started commercial operation in 1993 and 1994 respectively.


History

The Hong Kong-based British businessman and owner of CLP Power, Lawrence Kadoorie, conceived of the plan to build a nuclear plant in Guangdong province to provide electricity to both Hong Kong and Southern China. Kadoorie envisioned the plant as part of a "grand strategy" to enhance economic links with Mainland China and help to preserve British administration of Hong Kong. British Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the first female British prime ...
was enthusiastic about the plan and committed to the support of the UK Department of Industry. Chinese paramount leader
Deng Xiaoping Deng Xiaoping (22 August 1904 – 19 February 1997) was a Chinese revolutionary leader, military commander and statesman who served as the paramount leader of the People's Republic of China (PRC) from December 1978 to November 1989. After CCP ...
was also enthusiastic about the proposed nuclear plan. At a 1985 meeting between Deng and Kadoorie the two men expressed a desire to celebrate the planned commissioning of the first reactor in 1992, despite their advanced age. In 1985, the building of Daya Bay nuclear power plant incited controversy and led to objections from prominent politicians in nearby
Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...
, such as
Martin Lee Martin Lee Chu-ming, SC, JP (; born 8 June 1938) is a Hong Kong politician and barrister. He is the founding chairman of the United Democrats of Hong Kong and its successor, the Democratic Party, Hong Kong's flagship pro-democracy party. He ...
and
Szeto Wah Szeto Wah (; 28 February 1931 – 2 January 2011) was a prominent Hong Kong democracy activist and politician. He was the founding chairman of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, the Hong Kong Profes ...
, legislative councillors, district board members. A million people, or one fifth of Hong Kong's population at the time, signed a petition opposing nuclear power. Over a hundred community groups brought discussion on the construction, with the opposition primarily focusing on environmental issues and the rights of Hong Kong residents. Unit 1 began power operations on August 31, 1993, and Unit 2 began power operations on February 2, 1994. The reactors were designed and built by the French National Company,
Framatome Framatome () is a French nuclear reactor business. It is owned by Électricité de France (EDF) (75.5%), Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (19.5%), and Assystem (5%). The company first formed in 1958 to license Westinghouse's pressurized water react ...
, with Chinese participation. The plants were originally named Guangdong-1 and Guangdong-2 in the IAEA PRIS database.


Organisational structure

Daya Bay and the adjacent Ling Ao Nuclear Power Plant are operated together by Daya Bay Nuclear Power Operations and Management Co (DNMC), an affiliate of
China General Nuclear Power Group China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN) (), formerly China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group (), is a Chinese state-owned energy corporation under the SASAC of the State Council. In China, CGN operates nuclear plants at Daya Bay Nuclear Power Plan ...
(CGN). Daya Bay is 25% owned by Hong Kong-listed CLP Group, which buys about 80% of the plant's output to supply Hong Kong's power needs. 75% is owned by Guangdong Nuclear Investment, a subsidiary of CGN.


Incidents


Missing reinforcing bars

On 9 October 1987, the
Hong Kong Legislative Council The Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (LegCo) is the unicameral legislature of Hong Kong. It sits under China's "one country, two systems" constitutional arrangement, and is the power centre of Hong Kong' ...
task force was informed that 316 steel reinforcing bars were missing from the reactor platform of Unit 1. There should have been 8080 bars in the whole structure and 576 bars in the Unit 1 reactor platform. The incident was discovered and concealed by the operating company in September 1987. It was disclosed by a local Hong Kong newspaper in October. The concrete platform did not meet the specifications set. Company officials explained that the incident was due to a "mistaken perception" of the architectural drawings. In the aftermath of the incident, steps were taken to remedy the missing reinforcing bars. Extra reinforcement would be applied on the second layer of concrete for the shortfall on the first of the five layers. A Hong Kong Legislative Councillor,
Jackie Chan Fang Shilong (born 7 April 1954), known professionally in English as Jackie Chan and in Chinese as Cheng Long ( zh, c=成龍, j=Sing4 Lung4; "becoming the dragon"), is a Hong Kong actor, filmmaker, martial artist, and stuntman known for ...
, who was a civil engineer by trade criticised attempts to downplay the issue which focused on the fact that "only 2 per cent" of the total number of bars were missing. The 316 missing bars localised to the reactor platform which would have resulted in 55 per cent reduction in the total of 576 bars. The
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists The ''Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists'' is a nonprofit organization concerning science and global security issues resulting from accelerating technological advances that have negative consequences for humanity. The ''Bulletin'' publishes conte ...
reported the incident in 1991 with a title "Hong Kong fears Chinese
Chernobyl Chernobyl ( , ; russian: Чернобыль, ) or Chornobyl ( uk, Чорнобиль, ) is a partially abandoned city in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, situated in the Vyshhorod Raion of northern Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine. Chernobyl is about no ...
".


Alleged radioactive leak

On June 16, 2010 Radio Free Asia informed that there was a leak in one of the fuel tubes. Officials denied this information stating that "Daya Bay's two reactor units are functioning safely and stably. There has been no radioactive leak". Radio Free Asia quoted an unidentified expert, saying that
radioactive iodine There are 37 known isotopes of iodine (53I) from 108I to 144I; all undergo radioactive decay except 127I, which is stable. Iodine is thus a monoisotopic element. Its longest-lived radioactive isotope, 129I, has a half-life of 15.7 million year ...
had been released. They also claimed the incident had not been immediately reported to the government, and was kept secret for some time. ''The New York Times'' reported differently, quoting one of the shareholders of the plant, China Light & Power (CLP), a Hong Kong-based utility, that the government nuclear safety watchdog in both mainland China and Hong Kong were notified and briefed. CLP said in a statement that the leak was small and fell below international standards requiring reporting as a safety issue. No radioactive monitoring stations in Hong Kong detected any rise in radioactivity. Mainland China news outlets also quoted officials explaining the situation, which was considered under normal operation conditions and fell below international standards for reporting.


Safety

In April 2011, Daya Bay Power Plant won an unprecedented four out of six awards in the annual nuclear power plant safety competition held by
EDF Energy EDF Energy is a British integrated energy company, wholly owned by the French state-owned EDF (Électricité de France), with operations spanning electricity generation and the sale of natural gas and electricity to homes and businesses through ...
. "Everyone was shocked by Daya Bay's figures, especially for repairs and maintenance," said Liu Changshen, General Manager of Daya Bay Nuclear Power Company. The Daya Bay Nuclear Power Plant also stood out as its staff are exposed to a minimal amount of radiation - only 0.8 millisieverts, the equivalent to an x-ray (which 1 out 400 people get every year in the general population).


See also

* Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment * Ling Ao Nuclear Power Plant *
Nuclear power in China China is one of the world's largest producers of nuclear power. The country ranks third in the world both in total nuclear power capacity installed and electricity generated, accounting for around one tenth of global nuclear power generated. N ...
*
CPR-1000 The CPR-1000, or CPR1000 (Chinese PWR) is a Generation II+ pressurized water reactor, based on the French 900 MWe three cooling loop design (M310) imported in the 1980s, improved to have a slightly increased net power output of 1,000 MWe (1080 M ...
* Nuclear energy in Hong Kong


Reactor data

The Day Bay Nuclear Power Plant consist of 2 operational reactors.


References


External links


Hong Kong Nuclear Investment Co. Ltd
(
Flash Player Adobe Flash Player (known in Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Google Chrome as Shockwave Flash) is computer software for viewing multimedia contents, executing rich Internet applications, and streaming audio and video content created on the ...
required)
Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment Website
{{Nuclear power in the PRC Nuclear power stations in China Buildings and structures in Guangdong 1993 establishments in China Nuclear power stations using pressurized water reactors