China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), the nation's largest reactor builder, intends to use its own technology to build two 650-megawatt reactors and two 1,000-megawatt reactors at its Qinshan plant, which will more than double its generation capacity.

Upon completion of both projects, the installed capacity of the Qinshan nuclear power plant will be set to rise to 6,200 megawatts from the current 2,900 megawatts generated by five running reactors, a CNNC news centre official said.

Total investment for the planned expansion projects is expected to reach US$4.33 billion, based on construction costs provided by CNNC.

For the two 650-megawatt reactors, it will cost US$1,330 for each kilowatt of added capacity. The 1,000-megawatt reactors are US$30 less for each kilowatt to build because of the technology that the two gigawatt reactors will use, said company sources.

The two 650-megawatt reactors have already won final central government approval, and will be installed at the second phase project of the Qinshan plant in Zhejiang Province, which has already been operating two Chinese-designed 600-megawatt reactors, using technology known as the China Nuclear Power (CNP) 600, its own technology.

"Infrastructure for the two reactors is scheduled to commence construction next March, and the expansion project is expected to last at least five or six years," Li said.

The remaining two planned 1-gigawatt reactors will go to Fangjiashan, 650 meters away from the Qinshan phase I project, which already has one 300-megawatt reactor in operation.

The two gigawatt reactors have been designed with a new nuclear power technology, CNP 1,000, that CNNC is developing. "Both reactors will be part of the expansion of the Qinshan phase I project and have yet to win central government approval," the CNNC official said.

"We aren't sure when the approval will come - it may be in the next four or five years," said Ma Mingze, deputy-general-manager of the Qinshan Nuclear Power Co, a unit of CNNC.

A design of a prototype for the CNP 1,000 reactor may be ready by the end of the year, CNNC President Kang Rixin said.

Because of the reduced costs of the two gigawatt reactors, the power sold to electricity distributors from the CNP 1,000 plants will be 5 percent cheaper, Kang said.

Among the five reactors in operation at the Qinshan nuclear power base, another two 700-megawatt reactors are being placed in the phase III project that uses the Candu technology developed by Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd (AECL).

China has vowed to increase the nuclear content of its power generation mix to 4 percent by 2020 from the current 2 percent, which can be translated into some 30 nuclear plants totaling 40 gigawatts of installed capacity.

The plant locations have been selected at Qinshan, Sanmen in Zhejiang, Yangjiang of Guangdong, Hui'an in Fujian and Haiyang in Shandong.

The aim is to spend 400 billion yuan (US$48.33 billion) on the projects within the next 15 years, said Kang.

(China Daily June 14, 2005)