China will purchase four state-of-the-art nuclear reactors from the United States at an estimated cost of $8 billion, state media said.
BEIJING: China will purchase four state-of-the-art nuclear reactors from the United States at an estimated cost of $8 billion.
The US has agreed to the transfer of AP1000 technology, which is believed safe, cost efficient and advanced compared with the 1970s-era reactors that dominate in China.
The deal with Westinghouse Electric Company, in which the extent of technology transfers includes design of equipment and nuclear facilities as well as technical support, will be completed in May, and the first of the four reactors will begin to generate power by 2013, the state media reported on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, China is looking to fuel its nuclear power industry with largely self-developed technology by 2020 as it gradually reduces its reliance on imported technology, a senior academic of the nation's top science institute said.
China's first self-developed pressurised water reactor is expected to be put to use by 2017, an academic of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ouyang Yu said.
The objectives will be achieved based on the digestion and development of the latest technology acquired through the purchase of four nuclear reactors and technological transfer from Westinghouse, 'China Daily' quoted Ouyang as saying in the eastern metropolis, Shanghai.
During a workshop on the third generation nuclear power technologies in Shanghai yesterday, the head of China Atomic Energy Authority (CAEA), Sun Qin, also reiterated the nation's ambition to develop new generation nuclear power technology.
But China will have to maintain the policy of combining self-reliance technological development and foreign design imports in the short term, president of China Nuclear Energy Association, Zhang Huazhu said.
"It will take a few years for China to absorb the tection is keen to come up with its own design for the third-generation nuclear facilities," said Ouyang, also chief designer of China's first self-built nuclear power plant.
"By 2020, we could basically rely on our own technology," he added.
As it seeks to reduce its reliance on coal-fired, polluting plants, China is committed to increasing nuclear power generation capacity to 40 gigawatt by 2020, about five times the installed capacity in 2005.
Last week, China announced plans to build a strategic reserve of natural uranium. Ouyang said the nation's own uranium ore supply could meet the nation's demands by 2020.
Meanwhile, China's nine operating nuclear power units generated 54.8 billion kwh of electricity in 2006, or 1.9 per cent of the country's total.
Sun said China's current operating nuclear power units have a total installed capacity of 6.99 million kilowatts, and the country will have 11 units in operation by the end of 2007, with total capacity of 9.11 million kilowatts.
China plans to increase its nuclear power capacity to 40 million kilowatts by 2020, to account for four per cent total electric power, according to the country's medium and long-term development plan for nuclear power building.
China built its first nuclear power plant in east coastal Zhejiang Province in 1991.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}