the big picture

From today's SMH:

CHINA is expanding nuclear power construction plans faster than planned, a senior energy official has told state media, saying installed power capacity by 2020 could be 50 per cent above the initial goal. China's nuclear energy development plan had called for operating power capacity to hit 40 gigawatts by 2020, enough to power Spain but feeding just 4 per cent of total generating capacity for the voracious Chinese economy.

However, Zhang Guobao, a vice-minister of the National Development and Reform Commission long involved in energy planning, said on Saturday he now expected installed nuclear power capacity of 60 GW by then, the Xinhua news agency reported.

He reportedly said "construction of nuclear power plants has been progressing faster than planned" and "It is necessary to increase the share of nuclear power" and renewable energy sources. The central government has allowed three provinces - Hunan, Hubei and Jiangxi - to prepare studies on building "third-generation" nuclear power plants, Mr Zhang said.

China, the world's second-largest power market, now has 11 working reactors with 9.07 GW of total installed capacity. Last year those nuclear plants generated 62 billion kilowatt hours of electricity, up 16 per cent from a year ago, but only 2 per cent of the nation's total, official data has shown.

Last July, Westinghouse - owned by Japan's Toshiba - signed a multibillion-dollar deal with Chinese partners to build four nuclear reactors.

In November, France's Areva clinched the biggest commercial nuclear power contract on record, agreeing to sell China two reactors and to provide atomic fuel for nearly 20 years in a deal worth €8 billion ($13.3 billion).

NB: Any enriched U that goes to China not supplied by SLX is a shortage of enriched U in non-China for SLX to graciously supply.