Construction is expected to begin in middle or late August on
the main section of a nuclear power plant near the northeastern
Chinese port city of Dalian, the first such plant in the country's
old industrial base, a company official said on Friday.
The Hongyanhe nuclear power station, located the Donggang
Township, of Dalian's Wafangdian City, Liaoning Province, would have six generating
units, each with an installed capacity of one million kilowatts,
said Xu Juncai, vice general manager of the Liaoning Hongyanhe
Nuclear Power Co. Ltd.
It was 110 km north of Dalian and 270 km south of the provincial
capital Shenyang, Xu said.
"It is expected that four units, to be built in the first phase,
will go into commercial operation in 2012," he said.
The China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group Holdings Co. Ltd. and
the China Power Investment Corporation would each hold a 45-percent
stake, and the remaining 10 percent would be held by the Dalian
Municipal Construction Investment Company, Xu said.
He did not disclose the cost of the project, which was approved
by the State Development and Reform Commission in April last year,
but earlier reports said it would cost 23 billion yuan (US$3.03
billion).
"We are now going through the final procedures of being approved
by the state, which may be finished in mid or late August," Xu
said.
The power plant is expected to play an important role in efforts
to rejuvenate China's old industrial northeast.
China has 11 nuclear reactors in operation. The nation's
installed capacity of nuclear power stands at eight million
kilowatts, accounting for merely one percent of the total installed
capacity of electric power.
The government plans to increase the country's nuclear power
capacity to 40 million kilowatts by 2020, to account for four
percent of the country's total electric power, in a bid to meet
growing power demand and cut emissions, according to the State
Development and Reform Commission.
China is the world's second-largest power consumer after the
United States. The nation used more than 590.78 million tons of raw
coal to generate power in the first half of this year, up nearly 18
percent year-on-year, according to China Electricity Council.
China built its first nuclear power plant in east coastal Zhejiang Province in 1991
(Xinhua News Agency August 4, 2007)
