The State Council gave the nod on Wednesday for construction of two new nuclear power plants, the first approval of new nuclear projects in more than five years.

The projects are the second phase of the Lin'ao Nuclear Power Plant in south China's Guangdong Province and Sanmen Nuclear Power Plant in east China's Zhejiang Province. Each will install two 1,000-megawatt nuclear reactors.

Sources said the expansion of the second phase of Qinshan Power Plant was also expected to be given the go-ahead at the State Council meeting, but approval was apparently delayed.

The expansion of Qinshan Phase Two would add two more 650-megawatt reactors. Industry watchers believe the expansion at Qinshan would precede approvals for Lin'ao and Sanmen.

Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan, who chaired Wednesday's meeting, said, "The projects mark a substantial step for the localization of Chinese nuclear industry."

Zeng called for improving the existing technology, building up design capability, manufacturing equipment and constructing nuclear plants with Chinese products and know-how.

The second phase of Lin'ao is likely to be a duplicate of the existing first phase, which was imported from France. International bids will be invited to build the Sanmen project.

China now has nine nuclear reactors operating, located at Qinshan in Zhejiang Province, and Daya Bay and Lin'ao in Guangdong Province.

Two more generators are currently under construction at Tianwan in east China's Jiangsu Province.

Against the backdrop of a severe power shortage, the government plans to quadruple China's nuclear power generating capacity, to 36,000 megawatts by 2020. That can be translated into at least two more nuclear reactors annually for the next 16 years.

The China National Nuclear Corp., the country's largest nuclear conglomerate, is lobbying the government to build two more reactors in Yangjiang, Guangdong Province.

China's nuclear power plants produced 43.7 billion kilowatt hours of electricity last year, accounting for 2.3 percent of the nation's total electricity generation, as compared with a world average of 16 percent.

(China Daily July 22, 2004)