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The nuclear option

By Wan Zhihong (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-10-20 15:58

Booming industry

Based on the success of the first Qinshan nuclear power reactor, China started to build Phase II in 1996. Two domestically produced pressurized water reactors, each with a capacity of 650 MW, were placed in commercial operation in 2002 and 2004.

In 1998 China began building Phase III with two 728-MW heavy water reactors using technology from Canada. The plant started commercial operation in 2003.

With five reactors now in operation, Qinshan has become an important nuclear power base in China. It has met the voracious power needs of the Yangtze River Delta, one of the fastest growing and most prosperous regions in the country.

The Qinshan nuclear complex has also enabled the region to cut pollution significantly, according to Kang Rixin, general manager of China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), owner of the Qinshan project.

In 2005 CNNC began another round of expansion of the Qinshan complex by adding two 650-MW reactors.

As the world's fastest growing economy and the second largest energy consumer, China's nuclear power industry has seen accelerated development in recent years, according to the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).

In 2005, China had planned to increase its nuclear power capacity to 40 GW by 2020, when it would account for 4 percent of the nation's total power capacity.

The NDRC has readjusted its earlier goal in order to coordinate with the boom in industrial development, by increasing it to 5 percent of the total power capacity in 2020, Zhang Guobao, NDRC vice-minister has said.

Zhang, who is also director of the newly-established National Energy Bureau, says the bureau will help further boost the development of nuclear power in the country. During the reorganization of ministries at this year's session of the National People's Congress, the management of the nuclear sector was transferred from the former Commission of Science Technology and Industry for National Defense to the National Energy Bureau.

China now has 11 nuclear reactors in operation, with a combined installed capacity of 9,080 MW, according to the China Electricity Council (CEC). Besides Qinshan, the country has developed two other nuclear power bases, Daya Bay in Guangdong province and Tianwan in Jiangsu province.

Last year the Tianwan nuclear power plant in Lianyungang went into commercial operation. With two 1,060-MW pressurized water reactors using technology from Russia, the plant is now the largest joint project between China and Russia.

The 11 nuclear reactors generated 62 billion KW of nuclear power in 2007, a 14 percent increase from the previous year, according to the CEC.

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