The project was approved by the
National Development and Reform Commission in April 2006, and projected to cost 23 billion
Renminbi for the first two units. The cost will be shared between the
China Power Investment Corporation, the
China General Nuclear Power Group and two Liaoning companies. Liaoning Hongyanhe Nuclear Power Co., Ltd., a joint venture, is managing the construction and will be the operator of the plant once it goes online. The operator is a 45–45–10 joint venture of
China Power Investment Corporation (now
State Power Investment Corporation),
China General Nuclear Power Group and
Dalian Construction Investment Group. Construction started in summer of 2006 with excavation of two large holes that will have the reactors put in them and a containment built around them. 'First concrete' for the first unit was poured in August 2007. 'Ground breaking' ceremony was held on 28 July 2010 for starting the work of two 1000 MWe CPR-1000 pressurized water reactors of phase II. On 17 February 2013 Hongyanhe 1 was connected to the grid, having started criticality testing on 16 January 2013. It began commercial operation on 6 June. Hongyanhe 4 achieved first criticality on 5 March 2016, was connected to the grid on 1 April 2016, and entered commercial operation on 20 September 2016. The Hongyanhe Nuclear Power Station reached full operational capacity on 24 June 2022 with total installed capacity of 6,710 MW. ==Reactor Data==