Chinese nuclear firms eye UK market

He says the stringent approval process in the UK also helps to drive technology advancement. "With EDF, Westinghouse, Hitachi, and other nuclear firms, the GDA process can sometimes identify issues that may not have been considered previously, giving an opportunity to improve safety and technology."

He says an example is when the UK regulator decided that one reactor design had insufficient diversity between safety systems, meaning that if its control systems fail, its backup safety systems could also fail due to the same fault because they were too similar. So a more diverse backup system was developed that led to an improvement in the reactor's safety technology.

David Orr, executive vice-president of business development for nuclear at Rolls-Royce, says his company has the capability to support Chinese firms throughout the lifecycle of a UK nuclear project.

In June last year, Rolls-Royce signed memoranda of understanding with all three of China's major nuclear companies - CGN, CNNC and State Nuclear Power Technology Corp - in which the parties agreed to work more closely together in the UK and China.

The agreements addressed possible collaboration in areas such as engineering support, provision of components and systems, emergency diesel generators, supply chain management, and instrumentation and control technology.

Orr says Rolls-Royce has significant investment in the Chinese market and has been working with Chinese nuclear firms such as CGN and CNNC for 30 years.

Rolls-Royce supplies safety-critical instrumentation and control technology to more than 70 percent of nuclear reactors in operation or under construction in China, and emergency diesel generators to almost 40 percent.

He says the company entered the Chinese market as a part of the supply chain of Western nuclear technology that China was using, but over time it gained familiarity with the Chinese market and now hopes to work more closely with China's indigenous nuclear technology.

Orr says Rolls-Royce aims to enter the supply chain of Hualong technology in China's domestic market with safety instrumentation and control systems, as well as helping to improve the design of mechanical systems. However, support they could provide to Chinese nuclear firms internationally would be far greater.

"How the entire nuclear industry is managed in China has impressed me," Orr says, adding that it would benefit Chinese firms to work in consortiums for the UK market.