Two 1,000-MW nuclear power reactors will be built under the
second phase of the Tianwan nuclear power plant in Jiangsu Province, company officials have
said.
Russian company Atomstroyexport (ASE) - which supplied the two
reactors for Phase I that started full operation in August - and a
Chinese project official who did not want to be named, confirmed
the project.
Aleksander Selikhov, ASE's chief representative in Lianyungang,
told China Daily that the company is set to sign the
framework agreement later this year for the supply of No 3 and No 4
reactors, and expects the contract to be finalized next year.
Phase II will use more domestically-made equipment, according to
the Chinese official.
He said Tianwan will eventually become a key nuclear power base
and consist of eight generating units with a total capacity of
around 10,000 MW.
The Tianwan project is by far the largest collaboration project
between China and Russia, with investment for Phase I reportedly at
26.5 billion yuan (US$3.5 billion). Neither of the parties
disclosed the investment for Phase II.
Construction of Phase I began in 1999 with the two reactors,
each with an installed capacity of 1,060 MW, featuring Russian
pressurized water technology - which will also be used in the next
phase.
Most nuclear reactors in operation or being built in China use
second-generation technology. The exception is a contract finalized
in July with US-based Westinghouse Electric Co to build four
third-generation nuclear power reactors.
Westinghouse's AP1000 technology will be used to build the four
reactors, two of which will be in Sanmen, Zhejiang Province, and the other two in
Haiyang,
Shandong Province.
Westinghouse outbid its competitors - France's Areva and ASE -
after two years of negotiations.
At the end of last year, nuclear power accounted for 1.1 percent
of the nation's total installed power capacity, according to the
State Electricity Regulatory Commission. The target is to increase
nuclear power capacity to 40,000 MW by 2020, or 4 percent of the
total generation capacity.
(China Daily October 11, 2007)