EIRNS—China National Nuclear Power (CNNP), a subsidiary of China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), announced the approval for a small modular reactor in a June 4 notice to the Shanghai Stock Exchange. It said that the Hainan Changjiang Multi-purpose Small Modular Reactor Technology Demonstration Project is owned by CNNC Hainan Nuclear Power Company, a wholly-owned subsidiary of CNNP, and adopts the Linglong One small nuclear reactor technology of the company’s controlling shareholder, CNNC.

“The small reactor demonstration project is of great significance to promote the safe development and independent innovation of nuclear power,” CNNP said. It did not say when construction of the demonstration ACP100 is scheduled to begin, nor when it is due to be commissioned.

CNNC announced in July 2019 the launch of a project to construct an ACP100 reactor at Changjiang. Under development since 2010, preliminary design of the ACP100 integrated Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) was completed in 2014. The major components of its primary coolant circuit are installed within the reactor pressure vessel. In 2016, the design became the first SMR to pass a safety review by the International Atomic Energy Agency. The ACP100, identified as a ‘key project’ in China’s 12th Five-Year Plan, is developed from the larger ACP1000 PWR, and will be installed underground. There are also plans to build a demonstration floating nuclear power plant based on the ACP100S variant of the CNNC design. [rap]