Carbon-free Heating Keeping Chinese City Warm and Clean

Pensioner Jiang Fuxue is an avid gardener. Even during winter snowstorms in his hometown of Haiyang in Northern China, he tends to the plants in his home in a balmy 23 degrees Celsius. For many around the world, keeping an apartment this warm in winter would be unaffordable, or at least not recommended in the light of climate challenges, but Jiang does not get heat from a traditional source. His home, and those of the other 400,000 residents around Haiyang are warmed with heat produced by the local nuclear power plant.

“Outside may be cold, but in here it is always spring,” said Jiang, 60, a retired worker at one of the now defunct coal-fired heating plants, many of which are now being retrofitted to run the new nuclear heating system.