China has decided to build its largest nuclear power plant in Yangjiang, a city in the southern province of Guangdong.

The decision was a result of a recently-concluded project evaluation panel attended by nuclear experts from both home and abroad.

The project went into the planning stages in the mid-1990s and a feasibility review was launched as early as in 1996 by the China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group (CGNPG).

The government of Yangjiang city has agreed with CGNPG to set apart 472,485 square meters of land for the project, which will begin construction next year.

The gross investment in the project will amount to US$8 billion, and the plant is expected to begin production within 15 to 20 years. It will have six generators with an installed capacity of six million kilowatts.

Yangjiang is considered an ideal construction site, according to Ouyang Yu and Qiu Dahong, academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Xu Damao, academician of the Academy of Engineering of China.

Embraced by mountains on three sides and facing the South China Sea, Yangjiang city boasts a favorable geological condition. The academicians said that sea serves as an inexhaustible source of freezing water.

The experts also said the thriving tertiary industries in the city can provide the plant area with good logistical services.

According to Hu Wenquan, general manager of CGNPG, the electricity consumption of Guangdong Province is steadily increasing. In the first seven months this year, it grew by 18.1 percent more than the same period last year.

However, Hu said, the power supply in the province can not meet the surging demand, so it is hoped the Yangjiang nuclear power plant project will solve the problem to some extent.

Domestic companies and those from the Untied States, Japan and France have bid to design the plant.

(Xinhua News Agency August 16, 2003)