Contracts for four 1000MWe nuclear power plants to be developed in China are expected to be awarded soon, according to comments from senior figures close to the deal.
America’s Westinghouse, France’s Framatome and Russia’s AtomStroyExport tendered bids early this year for the third generation reactors, two of which are to be built in Sanmen in the eastern province of Zhejiang and another pair at Yangjiang in Guangdong province.
Kang Rixin, general manager of the state-owned China National Nuclear Corp (CNNC) said: “We are in the midst of technical exchanges [and] are making efforts to analyse the tender documents put forward.”
With nine plants in operation and another two expected to go on line by early next year, a further eight have already been granted central government approval.
According to figures cited by the government, by 2020 China is expected to have invested some yuan 400 billion ($48.3 billion) building around 30 additional nuclear stations, mostly along coastal provinces including Shandong, Jiangsu, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi and the municipality of Shanghai. Nuclear power is expected to contribute 4% of the country’s installed capacity by 2020 or close to 40GWe.
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