Shidaowan's defining feature is its diversity. The facility hosts the HTR-PM, a high-temperature gas-cooled pebble-bed reactor that became the world's first generation IV commercial nuclear plant when it began operating in December 2023. Alongside it, construction proceeds on Hualong One reactors -- China's domestically designed pressurized water reactors, with first concrete poured for the initial unit in July 2024. The site also plans CAP1400 units, an enlarged version of the American Westinghouse AP1000 design developed jointly with China's State Nuclear Power Technology Corporation. When fully built out, the plant will host ten 210-megawatt HTR-PM units, multiple Hualong One reactors, and two 1,500-megawatt CAP1400 units -- a nuclear campus unlike any other.

Building a facility of this ambition required an unusual partnership. Shidao Bay is a joint venture between China Huaneng Group, one of the country's largest power generators; China Nuclear Engineering and Construction Group, which brings nuclear construction expertise; and Tsinghua University, whose Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology developed the pebble-bed reactor design over decades of research. The total investment of 100 billion yuan -- approximately US$15.7 billion -- and a twenty-year construction timeline make Shidaowan one of the largest nuclear projects in Chinese history. It sits near Xiqianjia village in Rongcheng, about 68 kilometers southeast of Weihai, where the peninsula meets the Yellow Sea.

The HTR-PM was originally scheduled to break ground in 2011, but the Fukushima Daiichi disaster in Japan that March prompted a nationwide pause on new nuclear construction in China. Work finally began in December 2012. The pace that followed was methodical: pressure vessels installed in 2016, cold testing completed in November 2020, hot testing beginning a month later. The first reactor achieved criticality on 12 September 2021 -- marking the first time a generation IV commercial reactor had sustained a nuclear chain reaction. The second reactor followed on 11 November. Grid connection came in December 2021, full power was demonstrated a year later, and commercial operation launched in December 2023. Each milestone was a world first.

While the pebble-bed reactor draws headlines, Shidaowan's CAP1400 program -- branded 'Guohe One,' meaning 'unity of the country' -- represents a different kind of ambition. Starting from the American AP1000 design, Chinese engineers scaled it up to 1,500 megawatts and redesigned enough components to claim it as indigenous technology. The design passed the International Atomic Energy Agency's Generic Reactor Safety Review in 2016. The reactor pressure vessel alone weighs 487 tons and has a design life of 60 years. Construction of the first unit began in 2018, with steam turbine components weighing up to 749 tons fabricated by Dongfang Electric. When operational, these will be among the most powerful individual reactor units ever built in China.

From the air, Shidao Bay Nuclear Power Plant is an unmistakable presence on the Shandong coastline -- a concentration of cooling infrastructure, containment domes, and construction cranes that signals the scale of China's nuclear ambitions. The facility is reshaping the local economy and landscape, bringing thousands of workers and billions in investment to a formerly rural stretch of coast. Whether Shidaowan's technologies prove commercially viable at scale remains the central question. But the fact that generation IV reactors, advanced pressurized water designs, and indigenous Chinese nuclear technology are all being built, tested, and operated at a single site makes this patch of Shandong coast one of the most consequential pieces of energy infrastructure on the planet.