Two 1,000-MW nuclear power reactors will be built under the second phase of the Tianwan nuclear power plant in Jiangsu Province, company officials have said.

Russian company Atomstroyexport (ASE) - which supplied the two reactors for Phase I that started full operation in August - and a Chinese project official who did not want to be named, confirmed the project.

Aleksander Selikhov, ASE's chief representative in Lianyungang, told China Daily that the company is set to sign the framework agreement later this year for the supply of No 3 and No 4 reactors, and expects the contract to be finalized next year.

Phase II will use more domestically-made equipment, according to the Chinese official.

He said Tianwan will eventually become a key nuclear power base and consist of eight generating units with a total capacity of around 10,000 MW.

The Tianwan project is by far the largest collaboration project between China and Russia, with investment for Phase I reportedly at 26.5 billion yuan (US$3.5 billion). Neither of the parties disclosed the investment for Phase II.

Construction of Phase I began in 1999 with the two reactors, each with an installed capacity of 1,060 MW, featuring Russian pressurized water technology - which will also be used in the next phase.

Most nuclear reactors in operation or being built in China use second-generation technology. The exception is a contract finalized in July with US-based Westinghouse Electric Co to build four third-generation nuclear power reactors.

Westinghouse's AP1000 technology will be used to build the four reactors, two of which will be in Sanmen, Zhejiang Province, and the other two in Haiyang, Shandong Province.

Westinghouse outbid its competitors - France's Areva and ASE - after two years of negotiations.

At the end of last year, nuclear power accounted for 1.1 percent of the nation's total installed power capacity, according to the State Electricity Regulatory Commission. The target is to increase nuclear power capacity to 40,000 MW by 2020, or 4 percent of the total generation capacity.

(China Daily October 11, 2007)