An aerial view of construction site of the Unit 4 project of China's first Hualong One nuclear power unit in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area in Huidong county, Huizhou, South China's Guangdong Province on May 10, 2026. Photo: Screenshot from CCTV News

China General Nuclear Power Group's (CGN) Taipingling nuclear power plant project, the first Hualong One nuclear power project in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA), began construction of its Unit 4 project, marking a new stage in the development of the plant's second phase, state broadcaster CCTV News reported on Monday.

According to the CCTV News report, workers at the Unit 4 project of CGN's Taipingling nuclear power plant started the first concrete pouring for the reactor building on Sunday. The move follows the commissioning of Unit 1 and the fuel loading of Unit 2, signaling that the project's second phase has entered full-scale construction.

The newly launched Unit 4 of the Taipingling nuclear power project is powered by the country's third-generation atomic power technology Hualong One, which has full independent intellectual property rights (IPRs). Each reactor unit powered by Hualong One will be capable of generating 1,209 megawatts of power each year, and it is regarded as one of the world's most mature and independently controllable advanced nuclear power technologies, said the CCTV News report.

Hualong One is a third-generation pressurized water reactor technology designed and developed in China with complete proprietary IPRs. 

Program of the full Taipingling project plans for six Hualong One units to be built in three phases. Upon completion, annual power output will exceed 55 billion kilowatt-hours, saving 16.65 million tons of standard coal and eliminating 50.82 million tons of carbon emissions yearly, according to CGN.

Follow-up construction work is progressing steadily. Unit 2 of Phase I will carry out its first nuclear fuel loading in the near future. For Unit 3 of Phase II, construction of the main building is underway. Preparatory work for Phase III is being actively carried out, according to CGN.

Unit 1 of the Taipingling project — the first Hualong One reactor in the GBA — began to generate power on April 20, after being connected to the grid and put into service. Based on China's average nuclear power utilization hours in 2025, the unit is capable of generating more than 9 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity per year, enough to meet the annual power consumption of millions of residents across the GBA, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

With Unit 1 now in operation, CGN operates 29 nuclear power units with a total installed capacity of 33.04 million kilowatts. It also has 19 units under construction, with an installed capacity of 23.02 million kilowatts, of which 17 units adopt the third-generation Hualong One nuclear power technology.

Global Times