"We finished preliminary talks with senior government officials last week and further negotiations are expected next year," a CNNC director, who did not want to be identified, said yesterday in Beijing.

The site for the plant has not been decided, he said, and it will be selected from 10 potential locations.

The size of the plant will depend on the power demand forecast for the province, the director told China Daily.

CNNC will use advanced technology for building the plant, which is yet to secure final approval from the National Development and Reform Commission, the country's top economic planning body.

To build a nuclear plant, CNNC spends three years in preliminary preparations and another five years on building infrastructure, he explained.

The Hainan plant is CNNC's latest proposal which could be included in the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15) or later, he revealed.

The company plans a wide network of plants across coastal provinces such as Liaoning, Shandong, Fujian and Guangdong; and most have been included in the country's 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-10).

Surging energy demand has pushed the central government to accelerate the building of nuclear power plants to cut the heavy reliance on coal and imported oil.

The nation's power consumption is estimated to more than double to 4.6 trillion kilowatt-hours (kWh) from now to 2020, and CNNC has budgeted some 400 billion yuan (US$49.3 billion) to build at least 30 nuclear plants to produce 4 percent of the country's total electricity generation by then.

The Hainan government's long-term plan to push industrial sectors such as petrochemicals and steel will also drive its power demand to increase by an annual 15.5 percent to reach 17.5 billion kWh by 2010, said a local news report.

(China Daily October 11, 2005)