28.04.2004 09:31:00 GMT China's purchase of Siemens nuclear power plant suspended
Shanghai. (Interfax-China) - "Attempts by enterprises in the two countries (China and Germany) regarding the purchase of nuclear power facilities [from the western European country] have been stopped." China's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Kong Quan said yesterday.
The official made the remarks at a routine press conference when answering the question whether Premier Wen Jiabao would put the purchase of nuclear power generation equipment on the agenda of his trip to Germany next month.
Kong admitted that Chinese and German companies had been discussing a cooperative project concerning MOX, a fuel for nuclear power plants.
While according to a domestic English-language news website, anti-nuclear activists in Germany have tried to block the proposed sale, saying it is at odds with Germany's plan to shut down its own 19 nuclear power plants over the next few decades.
"Given this situation, I don't think Premier Wen Jiabao is going to raise the issue with the German side," Kong said.
Wen is scheduled to travel to Germany early next month in a trip to five European countries.
However, the two sides can have further contacts if they consider the cooperative project mutually beneficial and want to continue the project, but the contacts must be fair and transparent, added Kong.
Foreign media confirmed this morning that the German engineering group, Siemens, is the potential exporter, and the deal might be worth USD 55 mln.
Neither the nuclear giant, China National Nuclear Corporation nor the China Power Investment Corporation, the only one of the big five power producers in China owning nuclear power assets, is willing to comment.
To meet the power shortages, China hopes to raise the country's nuclear generating capacity to four times its current level by 2020, reaching between 32 mln or 40 mln kW, China Daily, the official English language newspaper, said last year.
So far, Russia, France and Canada have exported their nuclear technologies to China.
