The city of Haiyang in Shandong province announced that it had become “carbon neutral” having moved to nuclear heating. The entire urban area of Haiyang City will realize nuclear heating, becoming the country’s first “zero-carbon” heating city. The 200,000 residents of 4.5 million square meters of homes in Haiyang City are all using nuclear energy for heating.
After the project was put into operation, Haiyang Nuclear Power Unit 1 became the world’s largest combined heat and power unit, replacing 12 local coal-fired boilers. It is expected to save, per heating season, 100,000 tons of raw coal and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 180,000 tons, 691 tons of smoke and dust, 1,123 tons of nitrogen oxides, and 1,188 tons of sulfur dioxide, equivalent to planting 1,000 hectares (3.86 sq. miles) of broad-leaved forests, while reducing heat emission to the environment by 1.3 million GigaJoules, effectively improving the atmospheric environment and marine ecological environment during the district heating season.
