World's Largest Nuclear-Petrochemical Coupling Project Under Construction, Steam Output Over 35 Million Tonnes

On the shore of the Yellow Sea, southeast of Lianyungang, a forest of towers rises from what was once saline-alkali flatland, where a trillion-yuan petrochemical industrial cluster is taking shape. The world's largest large-scale nuclear-petrochemical coupling demonstration base is being built here, planning to replace traditional fossil energy with steam generated by nuclear power to provide green power for the petrochemical industry. At the construction site of the Jiangsu Xuwu Nuclear Heating and Power Plant, more than 4,000 builders are at work. The outer containment of the No. 1 unit's Hualong One nuclear island has been built to a height of over 20 metres, while the No. 2 and No. 3 units are undergoing pre-construction preparation. In the future, one high-temperature gas-cooled reactor unit and another Hualong One unit will be built successively.

The first phase of the Xuwu project plans to build two Hualong One units and one high-temperature gas-cooled reactor, forming a single heating system. The Hualong One units have high power and ample steam supply, but the steam temperature is capped at just over 300 degrees Celsius. The high-temperature gas-cooled reactor has a relatively smaller steam supply, but its outlet temperature can exceed 540 degrees Celsius, covering the main steam requirements of petrochemical processes. The two reactor types operate in coordination: the Hualong One units generate saturated steam for the first stage of energy conversion, while the high-temperature gas-cooled reactor reheats the industrial steam, ultimately producing three grades of high-quality industrial steam with different parameters to meet the diverse steam needs of the petrochemical park.

From the Tianwan Nuclear Power Plant to the Lianyungang petrochemical base, a 23.36-kilometre pipeline is used to transport nuclear steam. In June 2024, the country's first industrial-use nuclear steam supply project, "Heqi No. 1," was put into operation at the Tianwan nuclear base. To date, it has delivered over 4.8 million tonnes of green steam to the Lianyungang petrochemical base. The project has achieved real-time precise matching of reactor core power, steam supply thermal power, and grid power, providing engineering experience for the larger-scale Xuwu nuclear heating and power project.

The Xuwu project prioritises heat over electricity, ensuring industrial steam supply to the petrochemical base first, with surplus heat used for power generation connected to the East China grid. The "Heqi No. 1" system and the first phase of Xuwu will meet nearly 80% of the base's steam demand.

The cost structure of nuclear steam supply differs from that of traditional fossil energy. Fuel costs account for as much as 70% of coal- or gas-fired heating and steam supply, while for nuclear steam supply, fuel costs account for about 20%, with costs concentrated mainly in upfront investment. Coal and gas prices are subject to significant market fluctuations, whereas nuclear fuel costs are relatively stable. Nuclear steam supply has a cost advantage in large-scale industrial applications, and its overall economics are superior to power generation alone.

CNNC has established a carbon footprint factor measurement system for nuclear industrial steam supply, which can calculate the carbon emissions of nuclear steam across its full life cycle from seawater to industrial steam. According to domestic and international product carbon footprint quantification standards, the carbon footprint of nuclear steam supply is one six-hundredth that of coal-fired cogeneration steam and one hundredth that of natural gas cogeneration steam. Several petrochemical parks are currently in talks on nuclear steam supply solutions, and the technical plan for the Xuwu project is intended to be promoted to the Yangtze River Delta and Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao industrial clusters.