© The Author(s) 2025. Published by EDP Sciences.

1 Introduction

Since the beginning of the 21st century, the frequent occurrence of extreme climate disasters caused by global warming has become global issues faced by humanity. The “State of the Global Climate 2023” report [1] announced by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) pointed out that the global climate problems such as greenhouse gas levels, earth surface temperature, ocean heat and acidification, sea level rise, and the retreat of the Antarctic sea ice glaciers had reached record levels since the age of industrial revolution, and some climate indexes had been significantly refreshed. Climate warming caused by the greenhouse effect has led to an accelerated rise in sea level, and extreme natural hazards such as tropical cyclones, sandstorms, typhoons, floods, fires, and droughts occurred frequently, which is bringing increasingly severe challenges to human survival and sustainable development.

As a kind of low-carbon energy source, nuclear energy can effectively reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane, and alleviate the harmful impact of the increasingly climate conditions on human survival and development. However, the safety application of nuclear power technology is inevitably affected by the external natural hazards caused by extreme climate change. The Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Union [2] has statistically analyzed the data of 166 NPP’s operation incidents related to external natural hazards (excluding the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident) in European Union relevant countries and the statistical data of International Reporting System for operating experience (IRS) from 2011 to 2020. The results show that the proportion of external incidents caused by extreme climate hazards has attributed to 36% in NPP’s operation incidents (see Table 1). If the external flood caused by extreme climate is also counted to the scope of extreme climate hazards, the proportion of external incidents caused by extreme climate will reach to 40.3%. The impact of external hazards caused by extreme climate change on the safe operation of NPPs is becoming increasingly prominent.

China is also facing an increasingly severe climate situation [3, 4]. The frequent occurrence of extreme climate disasters has caused an increasingly prominent impact on the safe application of nuclear power technology. There have been many operational incidents where extreme climate hazards led to the shutdown or power reduction of NPPs in China. To effectively address the impact of extreme climate hazards on the safe and stable operation of NPPs, based on the national energy development strategies and the relevant technical policies for nuclear power technology application, this paper analyzed the current status of the protection design and the protection capabilities of the commercial NPPs against extreme climate hazards. To ensure the establishment and maintenance of effective defenses against radioactive release events in China’s NPPs, this paper also elaborates on the future development directions of nuclear power technology application to effectively adapt to the potential impacts caused by extreme climate change.

2 National energy development strategies and policies for nuclear power technology application

2.1 Low-carbon energy transition policies in China

As one of the main contracting countries for the “United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change” (UNFCCC) [5], the “Kyoto Protocol” [6], and the “Paris Agreement” [7], China has deeply involved in the international cooperation to address global warming. At the 75th session of United Nations General Assembly, China gave the objective time to achieve the energy development goal of “carbon peaking, carbon neutrality” for the first time. Chairman Xi Jinping announced that China would scale up the national contributions to address global warming by adopting more vigorous policies and measures, aiming to have carbon emissions peak before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060.

In December 2020, the Central Government Economic Work Conference proposed that it is necessary to speed up the adjustment and optimization of the national energy consumption structure, promote the realization of coal consumption peak as soon as possible, vigorously develop renewable energy sources, speed up the construction of the national market for fossil energy use and carbon emission, and improve the control of energy consumption. China should continue to promote the prevention of environment pollution and carbon emission reduction. China should also carry out large scale forestation actions to enhance ecosystem capacity. It was also proposed in the Report on the Work of the Government in March 2021 [8] that China would accelerate the green energy development transition, promote both high-quality economic development and high-standard protection of the environment in a coordinated manner, and achieve a 13.5% and 18% reduction in energy consumption per unit of GDP and carbon dioxide emissions respectively.

2.2 Nuclear power technology application policies

To effectively promote the transformation of low-carbon energy structure, based on the “three-step” strategic development policy [9] for nuclear power technology application, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) promulgated the “Medium and Long Term Development Plan for Nuclear Power application (2005–2020)” [10] in October 2007, clearly putting forward the overall development route for the application of million-kilowatt Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR). In March 2011, the occurrence of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident slowed down the pace of the nuclear power technology application in China, but the overall development route has not changed fundamentally. In June 2012, the National Nuclear Safety Administration (NNSA) issued the “General Technical Requirements for Improvement Actions of Nuclear Power Plants after Fukushima Nuclear Accident” [11] to guide the overall safety improvement of operating and constructing NPPs in China, so as to effectively address to the impact of extreme natural hazards on the safe and stable operation of NPPs. In March 2021, the Government Work Report clearly put forward the plan of actively and orderly developing nuclear power application on the premise of ensuring safety.

2.3 Interdependent relationship between extreme climate change and nuclear technology development

In the next decade, China will further intensify the efforts for national energy consumption transformation to a clean and low-carbon energy structure, to effectively address the impacts of extreme climate change on people’s livelihoods and sustainable development. At the current stage, the cost of clean and renewable energy development is dropping rapidly, and the scale of green energy usage is also expanding in China. However, due to the intermittent characteristics (such as day-night transitions and the influenced by seasonal climates) of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar energy, there is still an urgent need for a stable and clean basic power load to support the connection of large amount of intermittent renewable energy to power grid. Since nuclear power generation has the characteristics of reliable operation, safety, and high efficiency, it can serve as a basic electricity load for power grid and provide technical support for load compensation in emergency situations. The coordinated development of the renewable energy and nuclear energy to build a clean, low-carbon, safety, and efficient national energy structure, which is of great significance to optimizing the overall national energy industry layout and ensuring the safety of energy supply in China in the future.

The adoption of the term “actively and orderly” to describe nuclear power technology development strategy for the first time in the national Government Work Report, indicating that the application of nuclear power technology have become an inevitable choice for achieving the strategic goal of “carbon peak, carbon neutrality”. The functional positioning of nuclear power energy application will gradually change from being a strategic supplementary energy source to a powerful base load guarantee for national energy security and low-carbon energy supply in the future.

3 Nuclear technology development and application status in China

Compared with the United States, European Union, Japan, etc., the development of nuclear power technology in China started relatively late. Since the experimental research in the early 1970s, China’s nuclear power technology application has gone through a development history of nearly 50 years. In December 1991, the grid-connection of Qinshan NPP marked the start of commercial reactor technology application in China [12]. Under the guidance and promotion of the national energy development strategies for nuclear technology applications, several NPP bases have been successively built in the coastal areas of China’s mainland (see Fig. 1), such as Qinshan, Daya Bay, Lingao, Ningde, Fuqing, Tianwan, etc., which showing an overall layout with more in the south and fewer in the north [13].

Figure 1 The layout of nuclear energy industry in China’s mainland [12].

In January 2021, the first unit of HPR1000 technology with completely independent intellectual property rights was successfully connected to grid [14], marking that China has completed the 3rd-generation PWR technology self-innovation, which effectively promoting the national energy security and the sustainable development of the economy. During this period, China has also achieved the electricity power generation for High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor (HTGR) and sodium-cooled fast reactor (CFR), and has continuously made breakthroughs in the application of fusion reactor technology. By December 2024, the number of operating nuclear power units in China’s mainland has reached 58 units, with a total electric power production capacity exceeding 60.8 GW (see Fig. 2). In addition, China has also become the country with the largest scale of constructing nuclear power units in the world, about 27 units with a total electric power capacity of 32.3 GW are in construction, and all the constructing projects are being promoted in an orderly and safety manners [15].

Figure 2 Number of operating nuclear power units.

In order to effectively enhance the safety and economy for nuclear power application and address the public’s concerns for the potential radioactive release consequences of NPP accidents, the government has vigorously promoted the 3rd-generation PWR nuclear power technology application in China. Sanmen and Taishan NPP projects respectively adopted the 3rd-generation PWR technology of AP1000 and EPR technology, while Fuqing (unit 5 and 6) and Fangchenggang (unit 3 and 4) projects adopted China’s 3rd-generation of HPR1000 nuclear power technology. However, due to the era-specific characteristics for the development of nuclear power technology, the proportion of the 3rd-generation and the 4th-generation nuclear reactor technology application (including the HGTR and CFR reactor type) among the operating nuclear power units is still relatively low. The CNP and CPR series reactor types (including the M310+ reactor type) that adopt the improved 2nd-generation PWR technology account for about 65% of the operating NPPs (see Fig. 3), which still be the main kind commercial nuclear reactor types for a considerable period of time in China.

Figure 3 Different reactor types of operating nuclear power units in China.

4 Protection against extreme climate hazards in NPP’s design

4.1 Protection requirements against extreme climate hazards

External hazards refer to the incidents originating outside the nuclear facility that may trigger initiating events in NPPs, leading to significant consequences such as severe damage or large-scale release of radioactive materials, and often attributed to the failures of safety related systems or operator errors [16]. The impact of extreme climate change on NPP belongs to the protection against external natural hazards. Depending on the type of external natural hazards, the impact of extreme climate change on the safety operation of NPPs are significant different in the impact scopes and severities. The typical extreme climate hazards considered in the design of NPPs and their impacts are shown in Table 2.

Regarding to the protection against external natural hazards during NPP site selection stage, in the “Safety Regulations for Site Evaluation of Nuclear Power Plants” (HAF101) [17], it is required to determine the design basis of safety related SSCs for different kinds of external hazards to ensure that all the safety related SSCs can maintain their integrity and will not lose safety functions when or after the design basis hazards occur. In the “Safety Regulations for the Design of Nuclear Power Plants” (HAF102) [18], it is required that all the foreseeable external hazards must be identified and their impacts on safety related SSCs must be evaluated. When assuming a possible external hazard, the cause and probability of its occurrence must be taken into account in the design of NPPs. The design of NPPs must provide appropriate safety margins to protect the safety significant items when the design basis external hazards occur and avoid the cliff-edge effects of safety function. The design of NPPs must also provide appropriate safety margins to protect the safety significant items which are required to prevent early or large radioactive releases when or after the beyond design basis external hazards occur.

In domestic nuclear safety guidelines, design requirements for the protection against extreme climate hazards mainly take into account the climatic characteristics of NPP site along China’s coast area. Relevant requirements are put forward for the protection design against external climate hazards such as external flood, extreme wind, tornado, extreme rainfall, extreme snow, extreme temperature, Tropical cyclone, External fire, etc., while no special requirements are made in NPP design for the protection against external climate hazard categories such as hail, sandstorm, lightning, drought, etc. In addition to the overall safety requirements in the above-mentioned nuclear safety regulations, the requirements for the protection against extreme climate hazards in domestic nuclear safety guidelines [19–24] specify the types of external climate hazards to be considered in the design of NPPs, the methods for the determination of hazard design basis, and the relevant requirements for the safety design margins and so on (see Table 3).

In addition, “General Requirement of the Protection Design Against External Hazard in Pressurized Water Reactor Nuclear Power Plant” (NB/T20668) [25] clarifies relevant requirements for the general principles of external hazard protection design of PWR plants, methods for identifying and screening external hazards, hazard combinations (combinations between external hazards, external and internal hazards, external hazard and internal event), and hazard protection design. The types of extreme climate hazards in this standard include extreme wind, tornado, extreme temperature, external flood, extreme low water level, lightning, etc. In “Code for Hydraulic Design of Nuclear Power Plants” (NB/T25046) [26], the determination for the design basis of outdoor drainage system is also proposed.

4.2 Protection design against extreme climate hazards

4.2.1 Current status of the protection design against extreme climate hazards

Generally, for the protection design against extreme climate hazards, sites with higher safety risks shall be abandoned during NPP site screening process. Meanwhile, conservative safety margins shall be adopted to effectively resist the impacts of relevant external hazards in the design of NPPs, such as the elevation of the safety related SSCs layout to cope with the influence of external flood and extreme rainfall, the reinforced building structural design to cope with the impact of extreme wind, tropical cyclones, tornadoes and their missiles. Based on the requirements of nuclear safety regulations, guidelines, and standards, and taking into account the typical climatic characteristics of NPP sites along the coast area of China, extreme climate hazards considered in the design of NPPs generally include natural hazards such as external flood, extreme wind, extreme air temperature, extreme rainfall, tropical cyclone, tornado and their projectiles, etc. The design basis of different extreme climate hazards is shown in Table 4.

As shown in Table 4, at the present stage, for the protection against extreme climate hazards, there are no unified requirements for different types of external climate hazards, and there are some differences in the hazard design basis determination and their corresponding annual exceedance probabilities, which is partially different from the requirements of IAEA nuclear safety standards [27–30] and the relevant technical requirements in the European Utility Requirements (EUR) documents [31]. For example, the EUR Documents define two different hazard levels: Design Basis External Hazards (DBEH) and Rare and Severe External Hazards (RSEH), and the corresponding annual exceedance probabilities of DBEH are normalized to 10⁻⁴/year. Meanwhile, the hazard combination explicitly considered in NPPs design is not sufficient enough, and the impacts of external natural hazards that do not exist in coastal areas of mainland have not been specifically analyzed, such as the negative impacts of sandstorm, drought hazards, etc.

4.2.2 Protection capabilities against extreme climate hazards

In the design of domestic coastal NPPs, the determination of the design basis for extreme climate hazards is mostly based on the hazard’s historical statistical data, and the observation period of these statistical data is relatively limited. With the continuous intensification of climate conditions caused by global warming, the design basis determined based on the historical statistical data may not be sufficient enough to effectively deal with the potential consequences of extreme climate hazards. After the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident, the NNSA organized domestic NPPs to carry out a series of safety technical inspections, and conducted a comprehensive safety assessments and technical improvements of NPPs protection capabilities, so as to effectively cope with the impacts of external natural hazards. However, the external natural hazard related incident data provided by JRC [2] shows that operation incidents caused by extreme climate hazards occur frequently under the current safety design of NPPs. In China, there have also happened many operation incidents where extreme climate hazards affected the safe and stable operation of NPPs, such as the freezing and cracking of pipelines caused by low temperatures [32], the reactor trip caused by the invasion of marine organisms [33, 34], etc. Therefore, a sufficiently conservative attitude is still needed for the protective design and safety assessment against extreme climate hazards.

Due to the era-specific characteristics of national nuclear power technology development, there are also certain technical differences in the protection capabilities between domestic operating and constructing NPPs to deal with postulated initiating events caused by extreme climate hazards. For the improved 2nd-generation CPR and CNP series nuclear power reactor types, which are still the mainstream reactor types in China, the safety related systems of these reactor units all adopt active design concept. Under extreme accident conditions, it is necessary to ensure the supplement of electricity power and water sources for the active safety related systems, so as to effectively achieve the safety functions of emergency reactor shutdown and core heat removal, control the safety status of the reactor and limit the radioactive consequences of potential accident conditions. In the aspect of the protection capabilities against extreme natural hazards, the improved 2nd-generation NPPs are slightly weaker than those operating and constructing 3rd-generation PWR units, which design with passive and active safety related systems.

With the continuous improvement of nuclear safety requirements, the protection design against extreme natural hazards are also constantly being optimized and strengthened. Taking the 3rd-generation advanced HPR1000 nuclear power technology as an example, based on the experience feedback from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident, systematic safety design principles against extreme natural hazards has been formed, such as the dry-site design to deal with potential external floods, the improvement of seismic design to deal with potential earthquakes, and the configuration of mobile facilities for emergency water sources and electricity power supply to cope with the potential accident consequences, etc. By the design of a series of diversified, redundant, active and passive safety features at different levels of defense-in-depth principle [35] (such as active and passive core heat removal systems, active and passive containment heat removal systems, etc.) [36], the consequences of postulated initiating accidents caused by extreme natural hazards can be effectively limited. However, it should be specifically noted that due to the different climate conditions of NPP sites, there are still certain differences in the types of extreme climate hazards considered in the design of NPPs and their design basis, which in turn lead to different design requirements for NPP’s safety related SSCs. For example, there are anti-freezing design requirements for NPP sites in northern coastal area of China, and sandstorm protection design requirements for overseas export NPP projects.

In addition, nuclear emergency technology provides the last protective measures to limit the consequences of initiating accidents caused by potential extreme climate hazards, and it belongs to the last level of the defense-in-depth design concept of NPPs. To deal with extreme external natural hazards that similar to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident, all domestic operating and constructing nuclear power units are equipped with relevant nuclear emergency control means, which includes the in-site emergency plans, the off-site emergency plans, and nuclear emergency related mobile facilities, such as emergency mobile power supplies, mobile water pumps, and necessary connection equipments. However, due to differences in the design of NPPs and the environmental conditions, there are certain differences in the emergency plans and mobile facilities configuration schemes for different NPPs.

5 Development direction against extreme climate hazards for nuclear power technology

5.1 Construction of standards related to external hazard protection

At present, the protection design requirements for extreme climate hazards in national nuclear safety regulations, guidelines and standards mainly consider the climate characteristics of the mainland coastal NPP sites in China, which cannot fully meet the protection needs against extreme climate hazards at potential target oversea sites, and cannot fully cover the typical climatic characteristics of potential inland target NPP sites. At the same time, with the increasing energy consumption demand and the expanding application scale of nuclear power technology in China, at a speed of 6~8 units/year for new coastal nuclear power units approval [37], the suitable mainland coastal sites are expected to be fully developed before 2035. The protection requirements for extreme climate hazards of non-coastal sites need to be included in the planning of national standards construction as soon as possible.

A well developed and systematic design standard system related to external natural hazards protection should be established, including the protection against extreme climate hazards, so as to effectively support the external hazard protection design requirements and safety improvement of the constructing and operating NPPs in China. The completion of the standard system needs to be aligned with the latest technical requirements and practical experience in international standards, and cover the protection requirements for extreme external hazards protection at potential NPP sites, such as the anti-freezing design requirements in frigid regions and the sand prevention design requirements in arid regions. A well developed and systematic design standard system can provide effective technical support for the implementation of the “Nuclear Power Technology Going Global” [38] strategic development goal.

5.2 Enhancement of protection ability against extreme climate related external hazards

Facing the increasingly severe climate conditions, how to enhance the protection Capabilities of NPPs against extreme climate hazards has become a key safety issue affecting the development and application of nuclear power technology. As the basic reactor type of the national “three-step” nuclear technology development strategic policy, PWR nuclear power technology will continue to be the main reactor type for the development and application of nuclear power technology before 2030 [39], and continuously promoting the energy structure transformation to a clean and low-carbon energy consumption structure in China. Relying on the national energy development strategies and the development policies for nuclear power technology, China should continuously promote the upgrading and application layout of the million-kilowatt PWR nuclear technology in the future. While promoting the safety and economy upgrade of PWR nuclear power technology, China should strengthen the safety and ability of NPPs to cope with extreme climate hazards, such as anti-freezing technology in cold regions, and prediction and repelling technology of aquatic organisms at coastal sites (see Table 5) and so on, promoting the research of key safety systems, equipment and materials that may be affected by extreme climate hazards, so as to effectively adapt to the possible impact of extreme climate change in the future.

Besides, with the continuous scale expansion of nuclear power technology application, the resources of coastal NPP sites will become increasingly scarce. The orderly opening up and promotion of inland NPPs construction has become one of the choices for national energy development to improve people’s livelihood and sustainable development in inland areas. According to the climatic characteristics of possible inland target NPP sites, efforts should be made to promote the overall safety improvement of nuclear power technology applications at possible inland sites. To effectively meet the potential needs of nuclear power technology application at inland sites, the research and development of key technologies and equipments to coping with extreme climate hazards, such as sand wind prevention technology in high-temperature and arid regions, safe and reliable ultimate heat sink technology (see Table 5), etc., should be incorporated into nuclear power technology development plan at an early as possible, so as to effectively meet the development needs in the future.

At the same time, China should continuously promote the research and development of the advanced reactor technologies with higher safety and stronger site adaptability to cope with the potential extreme climate change in the future, such as small modular PWR reactor type, HGTR, ultra-HGTR, and fluoride molten salt reactor, etc, while supporting the research and manufacturing of key safety systems, components and materials, so as to effectively meet the development needs of nuclear technology application in the future, and provide the safe and stable base-load energy support for the implementation of “carbon peak, carbon neutrality” national energy development strategy.

5.3 Safety evaluation of extreme climate related external natural hazards for NPPs

Although the direct cause of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident is earthquake which belonging to geological disaster, there is no indication that the main safety systems in Fukushima Daiichi NPP are directly affected by the earthquake [40]. The tsunami caused by earthquake flooded the NPP, destroyed the basic safety facilities, and caused the operating reactor core lose cooling, which led to the melting of reactor cores, the failure of containments and a large-scale of radioactive release. After the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident, China has carried out a series of comprehensive safety inspections and improvements on national commercial NPPs. The results show that the operating and constructing NPPs in China have complete capabilities to deal with the Design basis Accidents (DBAs), and have certain abilities to prevent and mitigate the consequences of Serious Accidents (SAs). The safety risks are under control for commercial NPPs in China [41].

However, the lessons learned from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident in Japan have demonstrated the vulnerability of NPPs in coping with extreme external natural hazards and also reflected the necessity and importance of conducting Periodical Safety Review (PSR) on operating NPPs [42]. For the operating nuclear reactor facilities in China, combined with the monitoring data related to external natural hazards during the operation period, full safety assessments shall be carried out to estimate the effectiveness of the design basis against extreme external hazards, to determine whether necessary corrective actions or immediately compensatory measures are required for operating NPPs. Meanwhile, for the PSR on operating nuclear power units, it is necessary to fully consider the situation where extreme climate hazards occur simultaneously with internal hazards or other internal incidents in NPPs, and also consider the impact of extreme climate hazards on multiple units at the same time.

5.4 Nuclear emergency technology development for extreme climate related external natural hazards

As the last level of “defense-in-depth” measure in NPPs design, nuclear emergency technology is used to limit the large-scale radioactive release consequences under potential extreme accident conditions. At present, China has established a relatively complete nuclear emergency system, covering three-level organizational structures at the national government level, local government level, and NPP level, and is equipped with a relatively complete monitoring and early-warning system and emergency rescue facilities. However, compared with the United States and European countries, there are still certain development gaps in nuclear emergency technology research and the configuration of nuclear emergency facilities.

Regarding to nuclear emergency technology, it is necessary to further strengthen the technology development and technical optimization of nuclear emergency related auxiliary support systems, such as the nuclear emergency real-time assessment system, the nuclear accident emergency decision-making support system, the real-time assessment system of NPP emergency action levels, etc., so as to provide real-time, accurate, and effective technical information for nuclear emergency operations under postulated accident conditions. At the same time, based on the in-site and off-site emergency plans of NPPs, and in conjunction with the research and development of an effective nuclear emergency simulation exercise system, strengthen the communication among the national, local, and NPP nuclear emergency rescue actions, thereby optimizing all the safety arrangements in nuclear emergency management.

Regarding to nuclear emergency facilities, in the future, it is necessary to further strengthen the technology research and technical optimization of key nuclear emergency technical facilities, such as nuclear emergency mobile monitoring equipments (vehicle-mounted emergency monitoring systems, mobile laboratories, etc.), nuclear emergency command shelters, nuclear emergency radiation protection equipments, nuclear emergency operation equipments, etc. Promote the application of digital and intelligent facilities in the nuclear emergency monitoring systems, as well as the research and development of emergency rescue facilities such as radiation-resistant and high-temperature resistant nuclear emergency robots. At the same time, it is necessary to refer to the latest international practices in emergency equipment configuration, to build a flexible and diverse nuclear emergency handling strategy system. By evaluating the accident-rescue equipments and resources applicable to the site, establish a nuclear emergency plan with an indefinite-term response capacity to a certain extent, providing effective resources for the implementation of nuclear emergency technology under extreme external climate hazard conditions.

6 Conclusion

As a safe, stable, and clean energy source, nuclear energy will play an increasingly important role in the process of achieving the national strategic goals for “carbon peak, carbon neutrality” in the future. However, with the increasingly severe climate conditions caused by global warming, external natural hazards caused by extreme climate change are posing increasing challenges to the safety of nuclear power technology development and application. The operation incidents of NPPs caused by different types of extreme climate hazards have also drawn worldwide attentions to the safety application of nuclear power technology.

Based on the establishment of a complete standard system for external hazard protection, for the operating NPPs, it is necessary to continuously promote the periodical safety review and safety improvements of, so as to effectively optimize and enhance the protection capabilities against extreme climate hazards. For the nuclear power units under construction, in line with the national energy development strategy and nuclear energy application technology policies, it is necessary to promote the safety upgrading and the overall application layout of the national nuclear power industry, strengthen the ability of NPPs against extreme climate hazards, and continuously promote the research and development of key technologies and equipments related to dealing with extreme climate hazards, to effectively adapt to the potential impacts of possible extreme climate hazards on the safe application of nuclear power technology in the future.

In addition, it is necessary to promote the research of nuclear emergency technology. By supporting the research and development of digital and intelligent nuclear emergency support systems, as well as the emergency rescue facilities with higher radiation and high-temperature resistant characteristics, complete nuclear emergency systems should be established, thereby effectively limiting the possible radioactive release accident consequences caused by extreme climate hazards.

Funding

This research is not supported by any relevant funds.

Conflicts of interest

The authors have nothing to disclose.

Data availability statement

This article has no associated data generated and/or analyzed/Data associated with this article cannot be disclosed due to legal/ethical/other reason.

Author contribution statement

All authors have reviewed, discussed, and agreed to their individual contributions ahead of this time. Investigation, Shi HF; Resources, Jiang HX.; Writing – Original Draft Preparation, Tian QW.; Writing – Review & Editing, Ye QZ.

References

All Tables

All Figures

	Figure 1 The layout of nuclear energy industry in China’s mainland [12].
In the text

	Figure 2 Number of operating nuclear power units.
In the text

	Figure 3 Different reactor types of operating nuclear power units in China.
In the text