China's State Council (Cabinet) has given the go-ahead to the phase one project of the Shandong Haiyang nuclear power station.

The Council's State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission said in a statement on its website Sunday that two nuclear power generating units would be built in the first phase of the project, each with an installed capacity of 1.25 million kilowatts.

The China Power Investment Corp. and State Nuclear Power Technology Corp. planned to put the units into operation in May 2014 and March 2015 respectively.

The nuclear power plant would use the AP1000 technology, a type of the third-generation nuclear power reactor designed by U.S.-based Westinghouse company. The Haiyang plant will have six units each with a generating capacity exceeding 1 million kilowatts.

In an effort to tackle climate change, the government has accelerated the construction of hydropower, nuclear, solar and wind power capacities. It aims at increasing the proportion of new energy in total energy consumption to 10 percent by 2010 and to 15 percent by 2020.

According to the country's long and mid-term development plan of nuclear power plants, nuclear power installed capacity will reach 40 million kw by 2020 and will generate 260 billion to 280 billion kilowatt hours of electricity each year, accounting for 4 to 6 percent of the country's total.

(Xinhua News Agency September 27, 2009)