China Guodian Corp, one of the nation's five leading power
producers, has launched its first nuclear project in East China's
Fujian Province.
Guodian has set up a division to work on the project in
Zhangzhou, a coastal city in the southeast of Fujian, a company
source told China Daily.
Several 1,000-MW generating units are planned for the plant.
They will use the third-generation nuclear power technology AP1000
from Westinghouse, said the source.
"The move will diversify the power resources of Guodian, which
is good for the sustainable development of the company," he said,
declining to be named.
The nuclear power project is still at an early stage and has not
yet received government approval, he said.
Guodian had an installed power capacity of 44,450 MW by the end
of 2006. Most of its power plants are thermal and hydro. At the end
of last year, the company's total assets were 188 billion yuan.
China has chosen the AP1000 technology for the country's four
nuclear power reactors - two in Sanmen in Zhejiang and two in
Haiyang in Shandong.
In November, China Guangdong Nuclear Power Corp signed an
8-billion-euro agreement with French nuclear company Areva for the
supply of two nuclear reactors - a record deal for the French
firm.
Under the deal, Areva will supply two EPRs (European pressurized
reactors) for the project in Taishan, Guangdong Province.
All operational nuclear power plants in China are currently
located in coastal regions in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Guangdong.
The reactors use first- or second-generation technology from
France, Canada and Russia.
The country's largest nuclear company, China National Nuclear
Corp, is also developing a nuclear power plant in Fujian.
By the end of June, nuclear power plants with a capacity of
7,960MW were in operation in China, and another 18,340 MW of
capacity was under construction, according to Guodian.
At the end of last year, nuclear power accounted for 1.1 percent
of the nation's total installed power capacity, the State
Electricity Regulatory Commission's 2006 annual report said.
Nuclear power is the most important electricity-generating
method after thermal and hydro in China, and the country has become
the third-largest nuclear power producer in Asia after Japan and
South Korea.
China plans to increase nuclear power capacity to 40 gigawatts
by 2020, accounting for 4 percent of its total generating
capacity.
(China Daily December 7, 2007)
