French nuclear power company Areva SA has signed a contract to supply China with two generating stations worth up to six billion euros (US$8.25 billion), a newspaper reported Thursday.
Areva's deal with China Guangdong Nuclear Power Corp is the French company's biggest deal ever, Le Figaro newspaper reported.
The two third-generation reactors will boost CGNPC's output by 3,200 megawatts, the newspaper said. The deal must be ratified by French and Chinese authorities, and a French minister should be sent to China in the coming weeks.
On Tuesday, Westinghouse Electric Co – Areva's main rival for the supply of nuclear reactors to China – signed deals to build four nuclear power plants in China.
US, European and Russian suppliers of nuclear power technology have been vying to land contracts in China, where as many as 32 nuclear plants may be built by 2020.
In addition, China may approve the construction of four 1,000-megawatt nuclear reactors in the country's northeast to cut the nation's dependence on oil and coal, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission said in a statement on its Website Thursday.
"The government will start assessing the Hongyanhe project soon, which has completed almost 30 years of preparatory work," according to Zhang Guobao, deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission, China's top economic planning agency.
CGNPC plans to build a nuclear power plant at Hongyanhe, Dalian in Liaoning Province, Bloomberg News reported.
