CONSTRUCTION of a new Chinese nuclear power plant began yesterday at the northeastern coast of Fujian Province.
As far as independent development and the manufacture of generator units it will be the leading plant in the country.
Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan met project contractors for the start of the construction of the Ningde nuclear power station yesterday, and called for efforts to accelerate the optimizing of energy structure and to promote the independent development of nuclear power.
He said nuclear power was a clean, high-efficient, safe and reliable energy. He emphasized that the acceleration of nuclear plant construction was an important measure to speed the change of economic growth patterns.
Zeng said endeavors should be made to strengthen the adoption of imported nuclear power technologies and achieve the independent design, manufacture and operation of pressurized water reactors each with an installed capacity of at least one million kilowatts.
For the first-phase development, the power plant will be equipped with four one-million-kilowatt generating units. The investment will total 50 billion yuan (US$6.85 billion), said Qian Zhimin, chairman of China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group.
The country's independently-developed nuclear technology, known as CPR1000, will be used at the plant, Qian said. The first generating unit at the Ningde nuclear power plant will be finished and commissioned in 2012.
