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HANGZHOU -- The first nuclear heating project in southern parts of China was put into operation on Friday morning.

With a total investment of about 940 million yuan ($147.5 million), the project entered its trial operation phase on Nov 15. It currently has the ability to provide winter heating for 464,000 square meters of residential property in Haiyan county, East China's Zhejiang province.

Built upon residual thermal power of the Qinshan Nuclear Power Station in Zhejiang, the project helps produce heating for end-users in an eco-friendly way without carbon emissions.

It is expected to power the heating on a large scale for public facilities, residential communities and industrial parks in Haiyan county, according to Zhejiang Zero-Carbon Thermal Power Co Ltd.

The relevant nuclear heating technology is mature and has been widely used worldwide. Only heat exchange without any medium exchange will be generated during the whole heating process, thereby users can only be exposed to the fully safe water after layers of isolation, said the company.

The project is expected to support heating for more than 4 million square meters of area when it is fully operational. It is expected to save 196 million kilowatt-hours of electricity or 24,600 tonnes of standard coal per year, slashing 59,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide yearly.

The Qinshan Nuclear Power Station with nine operating units has a total installed capacity of 6.6 million kilowatts and generates about 52 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually.

As of the end of November, the power station had maintained safe power generation for 30 years, generating 689.6 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity, equivalent to reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 651 million tonnes.