Carbon-free Heating Keeping Chinese City Warm and Clean

Pensioner Jiang Fuxue is an avid gardener. Even during winter snowstorms in his hometown of Haiyang in Northern China, he tends to the plants in his home in a balmy 23 degrees Celsius. For many around the world, keeping an apartment this warm in winter would be unaffordable, or at least not recommended in the light of climate challenges, but Jiang does not get heat from a traditional source. His home, and those of the other 400,000 residents around Haiyang are warmed with heat produced by the local nuclear power plant.

“Outside may be cold, but in here it is always spring,” said Jiang, 60, a retired worker at one of the now defunct coal-fired heating plants, many of which are now being retrofitted to run the new nuclear heating system.

Like many other cities, Haiyang relied on coal to provide heating for its inhabitants.  Six years ago, that changed when turbines started turning at the Haiyang Nuclear Power Plant, which has been sending heat to homes in an ever-growing radius. The heat is entirely produced by nuclear power, with zero emissions, making it the first carbon-free heating system in China, and one of only a handful in the world.

Haiyang Nuclear Power Plant currently has two modern pressurized water reactors that generate around 20 billion kWh a year. These advanced reactors have a range of additional safety features and produce carbon-free electricity to power industries and communities in the region. 

Following a small pilot project in 2019, the Haiyang district heating project had expanded its operations to the entire city in 2021, expanding to Rushan, Weihai in 2023, and is now preparing to expand further to Qingdao City, where it will cover 200 million square meters and benefit five million people.

The project has already provided over 14 million gigajoules of zero-carbon heat, and reduced CO₂ emissions by 2.3 million tons by avoiding the burning of 1.3 million tons of raw coal, and is improving winter air quality in Haiyang and nearby Rushan.

 “Compared with other clean heating methods, nuclear heating is more stable, economical and eco-friendly with near-zero emissions,” said Liu Rong, Vice President of the China Urban Heating Association.

A key player in developing and maintaining the new heating system is Miao Zhengqiang, who runs Design Management at Haiyang Nuclear Power Plant. He explained why the project was launched. “First, as a clean energy enterprise, we aim to better fulfil our corporate social responsibility. At the same time, we strive to provide relatively affordable thermal energy to society.” 

Nuclear power plants generate a vast amount of hot steam – this is their entire goal, as the steam drives the generators that make electricity. However, constrained by the laws of physics, only about one-third of the heat in steam can be converted into electricity, while the majority of the remaining heat becomes waste heat.

To increase efficiency, a plant needs to put this heat to productive use. Instead of releasing it into the environment, the steam can be used for heating or cooling, or as an energy source to produce fresh water, hydrogen or other products, such as oil or synthetic fuel. These products could be produced by existing nuclear power plants with only a very small reduction in power output, in what is referred to as cogeneration.

“The basic design of our nuclear energy heating system utilizes the high-temperature, high-pressure steam generated by the nuclear power plant primarily for electricity generation. After electricity is produced, the remaining steam is used for heating,” said Zhengqiang.

The steam is used to heat water at the plant through heat exchangers, ensuring there is no radiation in the heated water delivered to apartment heating systems.

Thick white pipes snake out of the plant and carry this heated water to dispatch centres across the city – many of which used to be part of the old coal-powered heating systems but have since been cleaned out and upgraded with modern pumping and digital monitoring systems.

Dispatch Manager Li Changke has been heating Haiyang for his entire career, first by burning coal and now by transmitting the excess clean heat from the nuclear plant.

Standing in a shining space filled with pipes, next to a room filled with high-tech screens, he remembered how it was before: “There used to be a 40-ton coal-fired boiler in this room. At that time, the environment was polluted, and the floor was quite dirty. After switching to nuclear heating in 2021, we built a beautiful and bright nuclear heating dispatch centre. Now that we use nuclear energy for heating, we have no emissions of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, particulates and carbon dioxide.”

Sun Lingling, a pensioner in nearby Yasha Village, is quick to advocate for the benefits of the system. “After we switched to this nuclear energy heating system, we noticed the indoor temperature remained more stable, more consistently comfortable. The public also benefits financially, as the heating cost has been reduced,” she said.

Another small demonstration project shows that this heating system could even produce drinking water. In the nuclear power plant, seawater is desalinated using steam at lower temperatures, transforming it into clean, drinkable hot water, which is transported to the community through a single pipeline. In the community, the heat from the hot water is exchanged for heating, while the cooled water is supplied to residents for drinking. This conserves resources and energy, as heat generated during thermal desalination of water is often wasted.

“I would definitely explain to any who have doubts about the safety of the nuclear heating system that it is absolutely secure,” added Lingling. “We have been living here since the nuclear power station was built, and we have been using electricity generated from it without any problems. It is extremely safe. In the end, the air is cleaner and we are warmer. All my neighbours have the same positive response.”

Engineer Zhengqiang from the plant can never hear that enough. “Hearing residents share their satisfaction with nuclear heating brings me genuine joy. I believe this is a truly meaningful endeavour, and it makes me feel very proud.”

There is growing interest around the world in using nuclear energy for industrial applications such as seawater desalination, hydrogen production and district heating. District heating has been implemented in several countries – Bulgaria, China, Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Switzerland and Ukraine.

IAEA expert Francesco Ganda explained its appeal: “Countries are increasingly interested in the direct use of heat from nuclear plants, as it brings several benefits, including reduced carbon emissions, increased robustness and resilience of the entire energy system, reduced environmental pollution and increased efficiency for nuclear plants owners and operators. The possibilities extend to district heating, like in Haiyang, but also to nuclear-powered desalination, hydrogen production and providing heat directly to industry to decarbonize their operations.”

According to Huang Ping, Secretary General of China Atomic Energy Authority (CAEA), the Haiyang project is likely to expand across the region and beyond. “Nuclear heating projects are an important component of China's green and low-carbon energy transition” he said. “China is willing to share its experience and practices related to nuclear heating with other countries to jointly tackle global climate change.”

Countries who wish to take advantage of the opportunities offered by nuclear cogeneration can receive support from the IAEA with research and training.