(Yicai) Sept. 8 -- China General Nuclear Power has unveiled its upgraded Hualong One gigawatt-class pressurized water reactor, touting major improvements in the safety, construction schedule, cost, and operation of the world’s most-used third-generation atomic power technology.

The state-owned company has made nearly 100 design improvements for Hualong One 2.0 based on experience from the large-scale deployment and operation of Hualong One 1.0, Chief Expert Niu Wenhua said at the CGN Annual Sustainable Development Conference in Shenzhen yesterday.

Jointly developed by Shenzhen-based CGN and China National Nuclear Corporation, 10 Hualong One 1.0 units are in use in China and overseas, while 37 others have been approved or are under construction.

“Hualong One 2.0 is not a technology built from scratch to replace the old one,” Niu pointed out. “It represents a systematic enhancement of the mature Hualong One design.” Hualong One 2.0 has been upgraded in five key areas: safety, construction schedule, cost, operation and maintenance, and environmental protection, he said.

Shares of CGN’s listed arm, CGN Power [SHE: 003816], closed 0.5 percent higher at CNY4.31 (64 US cents) each in Shenzhen today, taking the stock’s gain so far this year to almost 15 percent.

Hualong One 2.0 builds on the original reactor’s defense-in-depth safety system and includes comprehensive upgrades to 14 safety features, with major improvements to nine key indicators, he said. The changes are designed to vastly reduce the power plant’s reliance on manual intervention and outside assistance in the event of a serious accident, according to Niu.

The upgraded design also simplifies a plant’s auxiliary systems. Without lowering power generation capacity, Hualong One 2.0 can reduce pipeline length by about 31 percent, process valves by about a quarter, and the volume of nuclear-island buildings by 21 percent, reducing nuclear-island installation work by about a third, Niu said.

The third phase of the CGN’s Taipingling power plant in Guangdong province, approved by an executive meeting of the State Council at the end of July, will become the first to use Hualong One 2.0. Preparatory work, such as for equipment supply contracts, has already begun.

CGN also released FirmSys yesterday, a new-generation digital control system to monitor and run nuclear power reactors safely. It can reduce the number of control-system cabinets by about 40 percent, increase the share of automated operation of Hualong One 2.0 units by two-thirds, resulting in more precise system regulation and faster response times, Niu said.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Futura Costaglione