Construction of roads for the first nuclear power plant in northeast China's Liaoning Province finished on November 5 amid much celebration and firecrackers.

The site of Hongyanhe Nuclear Power Plant is in Donggang Town, Wafangdian City and the reactor itself is due to be built from 2006.

In the meantime several projects including site leveling and the installation of water, electricity and communications will commence.

As one of the state's key energy construction projects, the plant is being built jointly by China Power Investment Corporation, Liaoning provincial government and Dalian municipal government with a total investment of 60 billion yuan (US$7.2 billion). About 228 hectares of land and 1,005 hectares of sea have been requisitioned for it.

A total of 26 billion yuan (US$3.1 billion) has been committed to the first stage of the project, which will equip the plant with two 1 million-kW generators. Upon completion of this phase, the electricity that it produces annually will satisfy the demands of two medium-sized cities.

The whole project is due to be completed in six years. When finished, it will have six 1 million-kW generators and will produce 52.56 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually.

(China.org.cn by Wang Qian, November 14, 2004)