china to build 28 more nuclear power reactors

China to Build 28 More Nuclear Power Reactors by 2020

March 23 (Bloomberg) -- China, the worlds second-biggest energy user, approved the construction of 28 more nuclear power reactors under a revised target for 2020 to meet rising demand for clean energy and accelerate development of the industry.

Each of the one-gigawatt reactors will cost as much as 14 billion yuan ($2.1 billion), Mu Zhanying, general manager of the state-run China Nuclear Engineering Group, said in an interview in Beijing today. One gigawatt is enough to power 800,000 average U.S. homes.

Under the original plan announced in 2005, China was to spend 400 billion yuan to add 40 gigawatts of nuclear capacity by 2020 to help reduce reliance on more polluting coal and oil. The capacity will exceed 70 gigawatts by then under the revised plan, Wang Binghua, chairman of the State Nuclear Power Technology Corp., said on March 20.

China will be the worlds nuclear industry leader in terms of technology and also in terms of planning for long term 30, 40 years, Tony De Vuono, senior vice president and chief technology officer at Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., said in a separate interview in Beijing. Its pretty close to that right now. The Chinese government is very committed to nuclear.

Construction of 20 of the 28 reactors has already begun, Sun Youqi, vice president of China National Nuclear Corp., said at an industry exhibition in the Chinese capital today. It would take 50 months to build one reactor, according to Mu.

The country currently has 9 gigawatts of nuclear capacity in operation, the China Electricity Council said on Aug. 14. Details of the governments revised plan will be announced this year, China National Nuclears President Sun Qin said on March 5.

Exporting Nuclear Technology

About 200 gigawatts of nuclear capacity is planned or being built worldwide as governments turn to non-fossil fuels to fight global warming, Nomura International said in a report in January. Currently, 372 gigawatts of nuclear power capacity is in operation, according to the World Nuclear Association.

China is urging nuclear equipment makers to partner with foreign firms to build reactors abroad, Sun said on March 5.

The countrys emergence as an exporter of nuclear power equipment would increase competition for Areva SA and General Electric Co., who were beaten in December to a $20 billion order in the Middle East by a group led by Korea Electric Power Corp.

--Wang Ying. Editors: Ryan Woo, Ang Bee Lin.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ying Wang in Beijing at [email protected]
Last Updated: March 23, 2010 03:17 EDT