At 11:18 a.m. on August 3, 2026, Unit 2 of CGN's Guangdong Taipingling Nuclear Power Project began its commercial operation, symbolizing the completion of Phase I of the first Hualong One, the independently developed Generation III nuclear power project in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area

Located in Huidong County, Huizhou, Guangdong Province, the Taipingling project's Phase I was approved by the state on April 8, 2019, with Unit 2 breaking ground on October 15, 2020. Drawing on lessons from earlier Hualong One projects, the construction team worked through a series of major milestones including the nuclear island's main structure, equipment installation and commissioning, nuclear fuel loading, first criticality, and grid connection and etc, steadily raising construction quality, safety and efficiency along the way.

Throughout Unit 2's construction, the team pushed to fuse construction technology with digital and intelligent methods. More than 30 major construction design improvements were implemented, including the first-ever use on a Hualong One unit of integrated lifting for the steel-liner base plate and truncated-cone module. The modularization of the steel liner shifted much of the work that would otherwise happen at height down to ground level, sharply cutting the risks of overlapping site work and work at height.

On the digital and intellectual side, the project delivered more than 40 "quick win" use cases, over 60 digital and intelligent applications, and more than 40 "digital employees" at CGN Huizhou Nuclear Power Co., Ltd., alongside smart equipment such as Smart Construction Site 3.0, an intelligent command center and exoskeleton robots. The digital employees pulled system data in seconds, pushed business accuracy above 99%, and saved more than 1,500 working hours a year. An RPA-based spare-parts coding robot saves about RMB 10 million in labor costs annually and has cut redundant spare-parts costs by nearly RMB 48 million. All have greatly supported lean management and intelligent construction in nuclear engineering.

Zhang Guoqiang, Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of CGN Huizhou Nuclear Power Co., Ltd., said Unit 2's readiness for commercial operation means the completion of Phase I of the Taipingling project. Calculating the 2025 average utilization hours of domestic nuclear units, the two units are expected to generate more than 18 billion kilowatt-hours a year, enough to power the production and living needs for nearly 2 million people per year and cutting carbon dioxide emissions by an estimated 16.63 million tons annually, further strengthening clean energy supply across the Greater Bay Area.