The first phase of the Ling'ao nuclear power plant passed state checks after trial operation for one and a half years in Guangdong Province Friday.

Ling'ao Nuclear Power Plant, situated in Shenzhen, a boom town facing Hong Kong across a river, is the second commercial nuclear power plant Guangdong Nuclear Power Group has constructed in Guangdong, one of China's economic powerhouses.

The plant is scheduled to be equipped with four one-million-kw generators in two construction phases. Two one-million-kw generators with a designed life span of 40 years were installed for the trial operation.

Construction of the first phase began on May 15, 1997 and the two generators were put into commercial use on May 28, 2002 and on Jan. 8, 2003 respectively, and produced 6.157 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity in the first half of this year, which helped relieve power shortage in south China.

(Xinhua News Agency July 18, 2004)