China plans to boost nuclear power generation capacity nearly eight-fold by 2020, to70 gigawatts, quoted Zhang Guobao, head of the National Energy Administration, as saying on Jun 19.
In 2007, China, the world's second-largest power market after the United States, set a target of boosting its nuclear capacity to 40 GW by the end of 2020, but is likely to meet that goal five years early following a slew of project approvals.
China has 11 working reactors with 9 GW of total capacity, or just over 1 percent of total installed power generating capacity of 874 GW, about three-quarters of which is fuelled by coal.
China plans to build 28 new reactors, Mitsuo Matsumoto, director of natural resources and energy research at Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, told reporters during a briefing on a closed-door meeting, quoting Zhang.
Zhang was attending a one-day gathering of energy ministers and senior officials in Fukui in north-western Japan as part of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.
