The first nuclear power plant in northeast China started operation yesterday, Xinhua news agency reported.
The first unit of the Hongyanhe nuclear power station, also the largest energy project in the region, went into operation at 3:09pm, Xinhua reported, citing Yang Xiaofeng, general manager of Liaoning Hongyanhe Nuclear Power Co.
The station, near Wafangdian City in Liaoning Province, was jointly developed by China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group, China Power Investment Corp and Dalian Construction Investment Group Co, according to the company Web site.
Calls to Hongyanhe and China Guangdong Nuclear’s general offices were unanswered outside of normal business hours yesterday.
China’s State Council approved a nuclear power safety plan and a development schedule for the industry in October last year, effectively lifting a ban on new projects in place since an earthquake and tsunami crippled the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant in Japan in 2011.
The world’s largest energy consumer is seeking to more than triple its nuclear power capacity to 40 million kilowatts in 2015 from 12.54 million kilowatts at the end of 2011, according to a government white paper released on Oct. 24 last year.
The Hongyanhe project includes six generation units, according to its Web site. The installation of the first four, at a cost of 50 billion yuan (US$8 billion), is expected to be complete by the end of 2015, Xinhua reported, citing Yang.
The units will be able to generate 30 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity a year, according to the Web site.
Separately, China started construction of a 3 billion yuan nuclear power reactor in December last year, Xinhua said on Jan. 6.
The reactor, at Shidao Bay in Shandong Province, will start generating power by the end of 2017 and have a capacity of 200 megawatts, Xinhua said, quoting the operator of the plant, Huaneng Shandong Shidao Bay Nuclear Power Co.
A missing fingertip offers a clue to Mako Nishimura’s criminal past as one of Japan’s few female yakuza, but after clawing her way out of the underworld, she now spends her days helping other retired gangsters reintegrate into society. The multibillion-dollar yakuza organized crime network has long ruled over Japan’s drug rings, illicit gambling dens and sex trade. In the past few years, the empire has started to crumble as members have dwindled and laws targeting mafia are tightened. An intensifying police crackdown has shrunk yakuza forces nationwide, with their numbers dipping below 20,000 last year for the first time since records
EXTRADITION FEARS: The legislative changes come five years after a treaty was suspended in response to the territory’s crackdown on democracy advocates Exiled Hong Kong dissidents said they fear UK government plans to restart some extraditions with the territory could put them in greater danger, adding that Hong Kong authorities would use any pretext to pursue them. An amendment to UK extradition laws was passed on Tuesday. It came more than five years after the UK and several other countries suspended extradition treaties with Hong Kong in response to a government crackdown on the democracy movement and its imposition of a National Security Law. The British Home Office said that the suspension of the treaty made all extraditions with Hong Kong impossible “even if
CAUSE UNKNOWN: Weather and runway conditions were suitable for flight operations at the time of the accident, and no distress signal was sent, authorities said A cargo aircraft skidded off the runway into the sea at Hong Kong International Airport early yesterday, killing two ground crew in a patrol car, in one of the worst accidents in the airport’s 27-year history. The incident occurred at about 3:50am, when the plane is suspected to have lost control upon landing, veering off the runway and crashing through a fence, the Airport Authority Hong Kong said. The jet hit a security patrol car on the perimeter road outside the runway zone, which then fell into the water, it said in a statement. The four crew members on the plane, which
Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its junior partner yesterday signed a coalition deal, paving the way for Sanae Takaichi to become the nation’s first female prime minister. The 11th-hour agreement with the Japan Innovation Party (JIP) came just a day before the lower house was due to vote on Takaichi’s appointment as the fifth prime minister in as many years. If she wins, she will take office the same day. “I’m very much looking forward to working with you on efforts to make Japan’s economy stronger, and to reshape Japan as a country that can be responsible for future generations,”
RSS