The State Council of China has given the green light to build new reactors at locations scattered around Jiangsu, Shandong, Guangdong, Zhejiang and Guangxistate-run China Energy News reported. The total investment for all 11 units will be at least 220 billion yuan ($31 billion). Construction will take about five years, according to financial publication Jiemian, Bloomberg reported.
The largest construction site in the world
China has more nuclear reactors under construction than any other country in the world. In each of the last two years it has approved designs for 10 new reactors, and this year it has approved construction of a record 11 reactors.
CGN Power, a listed unit of a state-owned company China General Nuclear Power Corp., said in a Hong Kong stock exchange filing that it had received approvals for six reactors at three sites. China National Nuclear Corp. (CNNC) said on WeChat that it had received approval for three reactors, while State Power Investment Corp. announced that it had received approval for two power units.
China’s Nuclear Power Plant Fleet Will Continue to Grow
It is currently operating in China 56 reactors, whose combined capacity corresponds to about 5 percent of the total electricity demandaccording to the China Nuclear Energy Association. Beijing will likely approve about 10 new reactors a year for the next three to five years, Citic Securities Co. said in a note. By 2030, China will overtake France and the U.S. as the world’s leading nuclear power producer, according to BloombergNEF.
Chinese reactors
New projects include a high-temperature gas-cooled reactor at the Xuwei Power Plant in Jiangsu, to be operated by CNNC. The project is known as a fourth-generation reactor, providing both heat and electricity with more advanced safety features.
CNNC also announced that it has received approval for two Hualong One reactors at the Xuwei plant, while all six CGN reactors will be Hualong One reactors. The design has dominated new designs in recent years because it uses almost exclusively Chinese-made components. The block Hualong Onewas developed jointly by CNNC and CGN, based on three-loop reactors ACP1000 and ACPR1000developed by both corporations. These in turn are derived from the French M310 reactor design.
