China’s first homegrown advanced nuclear reactor – China’s latest business and technology news

Xinhua reports that “China’s first pilot nuclear power project using Hualong One technology, a domestically developed third-generation reactor design,” will have its containment dome installed in the next two days. Third-generation nuclear technology is state-of-the-art, and is safer and more efficient than 20th-century “second-generation” nuclear power. China is nearing completion of several plants that use imported advanced reactors from Westinghouse, an American firm owned by Japan’s Toshiba, but the Hualong One is the first domestically built advanced reactor.

China has a relatively loose regulatory environment for nuclear power, which may enable rapid development of the domestic industry. The new dome installation, at a site in Fuqing, in southeast China’s Fujian Province, will mark approximately the middle of construction on the homegrown nuclear reactor — concrete pouring for the plant began in May 2015, and it is expected to be operational by 2019.

If the reactor is successfully completed and deployed, it might become an officially recognized project of national pride, included in rosters such as this China Daily list of “China’s major tech breakthroughs,” which are:

• The Jiaolong manned deep-sea research submersible’s dive into the Mariana Trench
• Mining combustible ice in the South China Sea
• The maiden flight of “homegrown” large passenger jet C919
• Launching the first cargo spacecraft, Tianzhou-1
• Launching a second aircraft carrier

• Chinese bet on young lovers in $600 million condom deal / Financial Times (paywall)
  “Humanwell Healthcare, a Shanghai-listed pharmaceuticals company, and state-owned Citic Capital China Partners” will pay $600 million for the condom and sexual health business of Australian manufacturer Ansell, “whose Jissbon brand sheaths are already a mainstay in Chinese convenience stores.”
• Why zombies are striking a blow for market forces in China / Financial Times (paywall)
  According to a financial analyst who covers the film industry, “Historically, hardly any zombie or ghost movies have been allowed in, and ultraviolence like Logan has been a no-go area,” but this year, censorship of foreign films has been much lighter. The FT says that “the reason is clear”: “After years of vertiginous growth, China’s box office is in danger of slipping this year for the first time since the 1990s.”
• Google goes to China, making play for talent and attention / WSJ (paywall)
  Google’s AlphaGo software won its second match against the world’s top player of the traditional board game Go. The Wall Street Journal says that the “AlphaGo event was a chance for Google to raise its profile with China’s young engineers” in a market it once again hopes to grow after a long period of retreat.
• China is building some of the world’s biggest packaged food companies / Bloomberg
• WeChat and werewolves: The new face of Chinese tech networking / TechNode
• Foreign firms fret as China implements new cybersecurity law / Bloomberg