A leading Chinese insurance company contracted in Shanghai this week to exclusively offer marine transport insurance valued at US$450 million for materials for a nuclear power station in Lianyungang, a port city in east China.
According to the contract, the China Pacific Insurance Co. Ltd has insured the transportation by sea of the bulk of nuclear equipment from Saint Petersburg, Russia, to Lianyungang from 2001 and 2004.
With its first-phase investment totaling US$3.2 billion, the Tianwan Nuclear Power Plant is a key project in China's 10th Five-Year Plan (2001-05), and also a large cooperation program between the Chinese and Russian governments.
With its principal equipment imported from Russia, the plant plans to install four nuclear generators, each having a capacity of 1.99 million kilowatts.
The plant began its construction last May, and will be completed in 2005.
The insured equipment weighs some 22,000 tons in total, and 776 are super-large pieces. The voyage extends for 12,000 nautical miles, stretching across ten time zones.
(Xinhua 02/21/2001)
