The locations of the five projects will be in the coastal Zhejiang province, Shandong Province and southern Guangdong and Hainan provinces, the National Energy Administration (NEA) announced at a meeting on nuclear power application.
The construction of the Sanmen Nuclear Power Plant in Zhejiang has already begun Sunday (Apr 19).
It would be the first third-generation pressurized water reactor in the country using AP 1000 technologies developed by US-based Westinghouse, and also the first in the world using such technologies.
The first generating unit with a capacity of 1.25 million kw was expected to start operation in 2013. The plant will eventually have six such units.
« We will build more generating units with AP 1000 technologies and introduce them to inland provinces based on the construction and operation of the Sanmen project, » said Sun Qin, vice head of NEA.
The first three inland nuclear power plants in Hubei, Hunan and Jiangxi provinces were likely to get approval for construction by the end of this year or early next year, the administration said.
The other two of the five projects scheduled for 2009, the Shandong Rongcheng Nuclear Power Plant, will begin its construction phase in September.
The project, with a generating capacity of 200,000 kW, will be domestically-designed and equipped with some fourth-generation nuclear reactor technologies, according to the NEA.
China’s mainland currently has 11 nuclear reactors at six plants, all on the east coast, with a combined installed capacity of 9.07 million kW.
Of the 11 reactors, three use domestic technologies, two are equipped with Russian technology and four with French technologies, and two are Canadian designed. All the 11 reactors employ second-generation nuclear power technologies.
To meet its economic growth, the country planned to have 40 million kW of installed nuclear capacity on its mainland by 2020, which would be 4 percent of projected electricity supply capacity, or double the current level.
Westinghouse Electric Co.’s work on the first AP1000 nuclear plant on the island of Sanmen, China, is under a 2007 contract signed by Westinghouse, its partner The Shaw Group Inc., China’s State Nuclear Power Technology Corp. and Sanmen Nuclear Power Co. of China National Nuclear Corp.
The plant is expected to begin generating electricity in 2013, according to a statement from Westinghouse.
Source : Konaxis
