Far from the usual story of reactors feeding distant grids, this new complex is being shaped from day one as a giant, steady “heat engine” for heavy industry — and no other country has yet attempted anything quite like it.
A nuclear site designed first for factories, then for the grid
The project is located at Xuwei near the industrial center of Lianyungang in Jiangsu province. Construction on Phase I has recently begun. Workers are currently pouring concrete for buildings that will contain three different types of reactors.
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The owner, China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), presents Xuwei as a world first: a single integrated site that couples a third‑generation pressurised water reactor (PWR) system with a fourth‑generation high‑temperature gas‑cooled reactor (HTGR), engineered from the outset to provide massive quantities of industrial heat as well as electricity.
Xuwei is the first commercial nuclear complex deliberately built to function as a large‑scale steam plant for nearby heavy industry, with electricity as a parallel product rather than the only output.
For Beijing, this is not just another power station. It is a test case for using advanced nuclear technologies to decarbonise some of the most carbon‑intensive sectors of the economy: petrochemicals, chemicals and heavy manufacturing.
Three reactors, one coupled system
# The Xuwei Site Reactor Configuration
The Xuwei site will include three reactors when it first begins operation. The initial setup at the Xuwei location consists of three separate reactor units. These reactors form the foundation of the facility’s power generation capabilities. The site has been designed to accommodate this three-reactor arrangement from the start of its operational phase. Each reactor will contribute to the overall energy output of the facility. The three-unit configuration represents a standard approach for nuclear power stations of this scale. This arrangement allows for efficient power production while maintaining safety protocols & operational flexibility. The facility planners selected this three-reactor model based on regional energy demands and technical considerations. The layout provides adequate spacing between units & includes necessary support infrastructure for each reactor. This initial configuration can potentially support future expansion if energy requirements increase.
- Two Hualong One units — third‑generation PWRs — each with about 1,208 MW of net electrical capacity.
- One high‑temperature gas‑cooled reactor, providing around 660 MW of electricity and, crucially, very high‑grade heat.
This mix is unusual. The Hualong One units offer proven baseload power and familiar technology for Chinese operators. The HTGR, on the other hand, is a fourth‑generation design aimed at higher outlet temperatures and enhanced safety characteristics, including the use of coated fuel particles designed to withstand extreme conditions.
What sets Xuwei apart is not simply that these technologies share the same fenced site, but that they are thermally coupled into a single, coordinated system purpose‑built for steam supply.
How nuclear heat is “recycled” for industry
A two‑step steam boost
The concept works by using waste heat & different temperature levels in a smart way. Demineralised water gets heated two times during the process. The system takes advantage of heat that would otherwise be wasted. First the water goes through an initial heating stage. Then it moves to a second heating stage where it reaches the required temperature. This approach makes efficient use of available energy sources at different temperature points in the system.
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Power naps can transform your daily energy levels when you learn to do them correctly. These short rest periods offer genuine advantages for your mind & body without leaving you groggy or disrupting your nighttime sleep. The ideal power nap lasts between 10 & 20 minutes. This duration allows you to enter the lighter stages of sleep where your brain can recharge without falling into deep sleep cycles. When you sleep too long during the day you risk waking up confused and tired instead of refreshed. Timing matters just as much as duration. The best window for a power nap falls between 1 PM and 3 PM when most people experience a natural dip in alertness. Napping too late in the afternoon can interfere with your ability to fall asleep at night. Creating the right environment helps you fall asleep faster & makes your nap more effective. Find a quiet spot where you can dim the lights or use an eye mask. The room should be cool and comfortable. Some people benefit from white noise or soft background sounds that block out distractions. Set an alarm before you lie down so you can relax without worrying about oversleeping. Place your phone or alarm clock across the room if you tend to hit snooze repeatedly. This forces you to get up when the alarm sounds. Your body position influences how well you nap. Lying completely flat might push you into deeper sleep than intended. Instead try reclining in a comfortable chair or propping yourself up with pillows. This semi-upright position keeps your nap in the lighter sleep stages. Regular practice makes power napping easier over time. Your body learns to fall asleep quickly and wake up refreshed when you nap at the same time each day. Consistency builds a helpful pattern that your internal clock recognizes. Some people struggle to fall asleep during short nap attempts. If this describes you then simply closing your eyes and resting quietly still provides benefits. This quiet rest reduces stress and gives your mind a break from constant stimulation. Caffeine and napping can work together through a technique called the coffee nap. Drink a cup of coffee right before your 20-minute nap. Caffeine takes about 20 minutes to kick in so you wake up just as it starts working. This combination can boost alertness more than either strategy alone. After your nap give yourself a minute to fully wake up before jumping into demanding tasks. Stretch your body and expose yourself to bright light. These actions help shake off any remaining drowsiness and signal to your brain that it is time to be alert. Power naps improve memory consolidation and help you retain information better. They enhance creative problem solving and boost your mood. Regular nappers often report better focus and productivity during afternoon work hours. Not everyone needs daily naps. If you sleep well at night & maintain steady energy throughout the day then napping might be unnecessary. However most people can benefit from occasional power naps during particularly demanding periods or after poor nighttime sleep. Listen to your body and adjust your napping routine based on how you feel. Some people do better with 10-minute naps while others need the full 20 minutes. Experiment with different durations and times until you find what works best for your schedule and energy patterns. Power napping is a skill that improves with practice. Start incorporating these short rest periods into your routine and pay attention to how they affect your energy and performance. With the right approach these brief breaks can become a valuable tool for maintaining peak mental and physical function throughout your day.
# How to Stop Mice from Entering Your Home This Winter: The Smell That Drives Them Away
When cold weather arrives mice start looking for warm places to stay. Your home becomes an attractive shelter for these small rodents during winter months. Understanding what keeps mice away can help you protect your living space without using harmful chemicals or traps. Mice have an extremely sensitive sense of smell that guides their behavior. Certain scents trigger a natural fear response that makes them avoid specific areas. This biological reaction happens because mice associate particular odors with danger or unsuitable environments. Peppermint oil stands out as one of the most effective natural mouse repellents. The strong menthol scent overwhelms their sensitive noses and creates an unpleasant environment. Mice will typically avoid any area where they detect this powerful aroma. You can apply peppermint oil by soaking cotton balls and placing them near entry points like doorways and window frames. Other scents that repel mice include ammonia and vinegar. These substances produce sharp odors that mice find threatening. The smell of ammonia reminds them of predator urine which triggers their survival instincts. White vinegar offers a less harsh alternative that still effectively discourages mice from settling in your home. Prevention works better than dealing with an infestation after it starts. Seal any cracks or gaps in your walls and foundation. Keep food stored in airtight containers & maintain clean counters & floors. Remove clutter that could provide nesting materials or hiding spots. Using natural scents as deterrents provides a safe method for keeping mice away from your home. This approach protects your family and pets while effectively addressing the problem. Regular application of these natural repellents throughout winter months helps ensure mice seek shelter elsewhere instead of in your living space.
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Bill Gates demonstrated an important lesson for other CEOs by choosing to work at his daughter’s startup during his retirement years. His decision to be directly involved in the day-to-day operations rather than just offering advice from a distance highlighted the value of hands-on leadership. Many executives tend to distance themselves from ground-level work as they climb the corporate ladder. They rely on reports and meetings to understand what is happening in their organizations. Gates took a different approach by actually participating in the work at his daughter’s company. This gave him direct insight into the challenges and opportunities that the business faced. Being on the front lines means more than just visiting occasionally or attending board meetings. It involves understanding the real problems that employees deal with every day. Gates showed that even someone with his level of experience and success can benefit from this direct involvement. He could see firsthand what worked and what didn’t rather than hearing filtered information through multiple layers of management. This approach also sends a powerful message to employees throughout an organization. When leaders are willing to roll up their sleeves & work alongside their teams they build trust and credibility. Employees feel more valued when they see that their leaders understand the actual work being done. It breaks down barriers between management and staff. For other CEOs this example offers a valuable reminder about staying connected to the core business. No matter how successful a company becomes its leaders need to maintain some connection to the fundamental operations. This helps them make better decisions because they base their choices on real experience rather than abstract data alone. Gates could have simply provided financial backing or strategic advice from afar. Instead he chose active participation which likely made him a more effective contributor to his daughter’s venture. His willingness to take on this role in retirement shows that the principle of front-line involvement matters at any stage of a career.
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The two-step process increases the steam temperature & pressure to levels that work well for challenging industrial uses. At the same time the three units continue to produce large amounts of electricity for the power grid.
By coupling third‑ and fourth‑generation reactors, Xuwei aims to deliver both reliable baseload power and high‑temperature steam tailored to local industrial demand.
In practice, the plant will act a bit like a giant combined heat‑and‑power system, but with nuclear cores in place of gas turbines or coal boilers.
Steam on a colossal scale
Feeding one of China’s biggest industrial clusters
Once fully commissioned, Xuwei is expected to supply around 32.5 million tonnes of industrial steam every year. That steam will flow toward nearby petrochemical, chemical and other heavy industrial complexes around Lianyungang, a major industrial zone on China’s eastern seaboard.
The grid will not be ignored. Annual power generation could exceed 11.5 billion kilowatt‑hours, roughly enough to cover the yearly electricity needs of several million households. But the layout and piping clearly show that factories sit at the front of the queue.
This flips the usual logic of nuclear plants. Instead of building far from demand centres and only shipping electrons, Xuwei has been dropped right next to its biggest heat customers, with the steam system planned as a core feature rather than an afterthought.
Carbon savings with hard numbers
Coal displaced, emissions avoided
Chinese authorities have started to attach precise emission figures to new nuclear projects. For Xuwei, official estimates suggest that each year the plant could:
- Replace about 7.26 million tonnes of “standard coal” that would otherwise fire industrial boilers.
- Prevent roughly 19.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions.
That is on top of cuts in sulphur oxides, nitrogen oxides and particulate pollution which would usually come from coal‑burning industrial steam plants. For a coastal industrial belt with chronic air quality issues, those co‑benefits matter as much as the climate numbers.
Xuwei targets the dirtiest part of many supply chains: the low‑profile boilers that quietly burn coal and fuel oil just to make steam.
Who is building Xuwei — and at what cost?
Behind the engineering sits a carefully assembled industrial structure. In September 2025, CNNC awarded a major construction package worth around €560 million to a consortium of:
- China Energy Engineering Jiangsu Electric Power Construction No.3
- China National Nuclear Huachen Construction Engineering Company
This contract includes the conventional islands for all three reactors along with related auxiliary systems and some equipment located outside the nuclear cores. CNNC Suneng Nuclear Power Company serves as the project company and handles investment responsibilities as well as construction duties and future operational management.
Xuwei has an advantage because it sits right beside the Tianwan nuclear power plant which is also operated by CNNC. The two facilities can share their infrastructure and logistics networks while drawing from the same pool of skilled workers. This arrangement should help speed up construction timelines and lower expenses when compared to building on a completely new site far from existing facilities.
A piece of a much larger nuclear push
China’s bet on advanced, large‑scale projects
Xuwei is not a one‑off. It belongs to a batch of 11 new reactors approved by China’s State Council in August 2024. The pattern is clear: the country has moved past tentative pilots and is industrialising advanced concepts at significant scale.
Beijing is taking a different approach than many other countries when it comes to developing new technology. While some nations prefer to run small experiments and conduct theoretical research, China is building actual equipment and linking advanced designs directly to real industrial areas. Chinese leaders believe this hands-on method is the quickest way to figure out expenses solve technical problems and secure a position in future global markets.
How Xuwei compares with other nuclear heat projects
Nuclear plants that supply heat are not new. Some Russian reactors have long provided district heating, and more recently, Chinese plants like Haiyang have started warming nearby cities. There are also high‑temperature test reactors in Japan, and plans in Europe for nuclear heat to serve industrial clusters.
Yet none of the existing projects match what Xuwei is doing. The site combines multiple reactors of different types. It uses third-generation pressurized water reactors alongside a fourth-generation high-temperature gas-cooled reactor. The design was planned from the start to produce both electricity & industrial steam at a large scale.
| Site / project | Country | Main feature |
| Xuwei | China | Coupled Gen‑3 PWR and Gen‑4 HTGR for massive industrial heat and power |
| Haiyang | China | Conventional PWRs adapted to supply district heating |
| Bilibino | Russia | Older graphite‑moderated reactors serving local heat and power needs |
| HTTR | Japan | Experimental HTGR used for research and industrial heat tests |
This combination at Xuwei is what makes analysts watch the project closely. If it works as planned, it could act as a template for future complexes in China and, potentially, abroad.
Why industrial heat from nuclear matters
The hard‑to‑abate sectors
Global climate targets hinge not only on cleaning up electricity but also on decarbonising processes that require high temperatures: refining, fertiliser production, plastics, metals and cement. Many of these rely on steam at temperatures and pressures that are difficult to deliver with standard electric boilers or heat pumps.
Nuclear heat addresses this problem. It provides steady output that does not depend on weather conditions and can be positioned fairly near industrial facilities when safety and location regulations permit. This makes it appealing for nations seeking more than just short-term gains in their energy systems.
Yet the approach raises challenges too. Long‑term contracts are needed to justify the capital cost. Industrial users must trust that steam supply will be reliable for decades. Regulators have to be comfortable with nuclear infrastructure integrated into industrial regions, often near densely populated coastal zones.
Opportunities and risks behind China’s bold move
For China, Xuwei offers several potential advantages:
- Deep cuts in local air pollution and CO₂ emissions from heavy industry.
- Domestic experience with fourth‑generation reactor technology at commercial scale.
- A reference project for future export deals involving nuclear heat for industrial clusters or ports.
Risks remain. Construction delays or cost overruns would undermine confidence in the model. Any safety incident would attract intense international scrutiny, especially given the novel coupling of reactor types and the proximity to industrial facilities handling hazardous chemicals.
There is also a question of flexibility. If local industrial demand falls or shifts to other locations a plant built mainly to supply steam could end up with unused capacity. That risk means planners need to match nuclear projects closely with long-term industrial policy rather than just electricity planning.
Key terms and what they actually mean
For readers outside the nuclear sector, some jargon around Xuwei can feel opaque. A few concepts matter for understanding what China is doing:
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- Pressurised water reactor (PWR): The most common reactor type worldwide. Water under high pressure carries heat from the core, staying liquid, and transfers that heat to a secondary loop to make steam. The Hualong One is China’s standardised, modern version of this design.
- High‑temperature gas‑cooled reactor (HTGR): Uses helium gas instead of water as the coolant and runs at much higher outlet temperatures. Fuel comes in small coated particles embedded in graphite, designed to contain fission products even at high heat.
- Industrial steam: Steam used not for turning turbines alone, but for chemical reactions, distillation, drying, and other processes in factories. Temperature and pressure levels vary by use, making flexible and stable supply valuable.
These technologies work together to make Xuwei operate more like a complete energy system for factories rather than just a regular power plant. Whether other nations will copy what China has done depends just as much on political decisions and what the public thinks as it does on technical capabilities.
