The State Nuclear Power Technology Corporation yesterday signed
an agreement with the US-based Westinghouse Electric Co to build
four civilian nuclear reactors in east China.
According to the deal, China will use the AP1000 technology of
Westinghouse for third-generation nuclear reactors, two in Sanmen,
Zhejiang Province; and two in Haiyang, Shandong Province.
"This is a milestone in the development of third-generation
nuclear power technology in the world," said Zhang Guobao,
vice-minister of the National Development and Reform Commission
(NDRC), the country's top economic planner.
Last December the US Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman and Ma Kai,
minister of the NDRC, signed a MOU for the construction of
third-generation nuclear power plants in China. It was initially
decided that two would be built in Sanmen, and two in Yangjiang,
Guangdong Province.
Westinghouse outbid its competitors France's Areva and Russia's
Atomstroiexport after two years of negotiations. The company was
bought by Japan's Toshiba for $4.16 billion in October last
year.
According to Liu Xingang, chief representative of Westinghouse
China, the company owed its success to three factors: advanced
technology, competitive pricing and an offer of all-round
technology transfer.
It would be Westinghouse's first major project in China. Media
reports estimated that the project would cost US$8 billion.
As for the two reactors in Yangjiang, media reports earlier said
that China would hold talks with Areva for possible contracts.
However, Areva declined to comment yesterday.
Unlike Westinghouse, Areva won its first nuclear reactor
contract in China in 1986 and has since built four of the nation's
nine reactors.
It offered China its European Pressurized Water Reactor (EPR)
technology to bid for the third-generation nuclear power units.
Company Chairwoman Anne Lauvergeon, who accompanied French
President Jacques Chirac on a visit to China last year, said the
Chinese market was critical for Areva to obtain one of the world's
largest nuclear energy markets.
China has become the third-biggest nuclear energy producer in
Asia, after Japan and South Korea, according to a 2006 BP
Statistical Review of World Energy. Nuclear power has become the
third important method of electricity generation in China after
coal-fired power and hydropower.
The country's nine completed nuclear power generating units now
account for about 2.3 percent of the total power output of
China.
(China Daily March 2, 2007)