The construction of China's first third-generation nuclear
plant, the Sanmen power plant, is set to begin in March, the State
Nuclear Power Technology Company (SNPTC) said in Beijing
Thursday.
Wang Binghua, SNPTC's chairman of the board, said the plant in
east China's Zhejiang Province was expected to generate power by
August 2013. It would also become the world's first AP1000 nuclear
plant.
The AP1000 technology, designed by the US-based Westinghouse
company, is an advanced technology approved by the US Nuclear
Regulatory Commission, but it has never been actually used in any
operating power plant.
The construction of the Haiyang nuclear power plant in Shandong
Province using the same AP1000 technology will also begin later
this year.
The SNPTC would buy four third-generation PWRs from the
Westinghouse, including its technologies, according to a contract
signed last July.
Wang said the preparation work was right on track. The SNPTC had
received 2.2 tons of technological documents from Westinghouse.
In addition, the company had agreed to purchase 4,000 tons of
steel sheets from the country's largest steel maker, the Baosteel,
to produce safety shells.
In his visit to the SNPTC on Thursday, Chinese Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan hailed the country's progress in
the field, and appreciated the company's negotiation efforts in
introducing the third generation nuclear technologies.
He also urged the company to accelerate the pace of independent
development of nuclear power technologies. The SNPTC, established
in May last year, was "a strategic step in improving national
nuclear power system construction and promote technology
independence," he said.
Related government departments, program owners and major
shareholders are required to step up support to the company, he
said.
China currently has 11 nuclear generating units in operation.
Three of them used domestic technologies, two were equipped with
Russian technologies, four with French technologies and two were
Canadian designed. All of them employed the second-generation
technologies.
According to the government plan, China will have an installed
nuclear power capacity of 40 million kilowatts by 2020, accounting
for four percent of the country's total.
(Xinhua News Agency January 4, 2008)
