The US$2.9 billion Qinshan third phase is the largest business venture between Canada and China and uses CANDU reactors imported from Canada.

It consists of two generators with a capacity of 728,000 kilowatts each. The switch for the second generator is expected to be flicked by August.

Although Qinshan is the fifth nuclear power station in China, the latest phase serves as an alternative to pressurized water reactors that are used in all other nuclear power stations.

There are three nuclear power stations in Qinshan, 125 kilometers south of Shanghai. With the others in South China's Guangdong Province, China hopes the plants will help satisfy the electricity demand of the booming coastal regions.

"The project will greatly ease the electricity shortage of the East China Power Grid," said Kang Rixin, president of the Third Qinshan Nuclear Power Company, at yesterday's opening ceremony.

The grid covers Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Anhui provinces and Shanghai.

The electricity demand of the area is expected to increase by 1 million kilowatts annually over the next three years, according to Kang. Even with the operation of the third phase, electricity will still need to be bought from elsewhere, like the Three Gorges Dam.

Kang said a setback for the nuclear plant might come in the form of the government's imminent sweeping power reform that requires all power plants to bid to sell electricity to the grids.

"There will be great pressure (on nuclear power plants)," Kang told China Daily.

He said the electricity price from the nuclear plant will be higher than the average 0.38 yuan (US$4.6 cents) per kilowatt hour sold by other thermal power plants to the East China grid.

And if the project cannot sell enough electricity, the station will have difficulty paying back loans. About 90 per cent of the money for the project was borrowed from Canada, the United States and Japan and should be paid back in 15 years.

However, Kang said the company is negotiating with the government to guarantee that at least 85 percent of its electricity is sold, given nuclear power is cleaner energy compared with thermal power.

(China Daily November 20, 2002)