There are already 22 nuclear power plants under construction in China, according to the World Nuclear Association. The People’s Republic of China is set to build around 40 domestic nuclear power plants over the next five years, the country’s Government has said. The country’s 13th five year plan period, running from 2016 to 2020, includes provisions for building six to eight new nuclear power plants a year. If all goes according to plan, the country will aim to increase its output to ten plants a year past 2020. British energy policymakers will be eyeing China’s domestic nuclear power programme with interest after the country’s government signed a deal to finance the next generation of UK nuclear power. Chinese Communist Party general secretary Xi Jinping signed the £40bn UK deal as part of a series of investment accords in a visit to the UK in October. The deal will see the state-owned General Nuclear Corporation take a two-thirds stake in the Bradwell nuclear power plant, where a Chinese-designed nuclear reactor is planned. A one-third stake will be taken in Hinkley Point, a plant run by the French state-owned firm EDF. A one-fifth stake will be taken in a project at the Sizewell plant.
Independent 4th Jan 2016 read more »
The final module – the containment water tank – has been installed at the second AP1000 unit under construction at Sanmen in China’s Zhejiang province. The operation to lift the 312-tonne containment cooling tank – with an outer diameter of almost 26 metres, an inner diameter of 10.6 metres and a height of just over 10 metres – was completed on 27 December, plant constructor China Nuclear Engineering Corporation (CNEC) announced.
World Nuclear News 4th Jan 2015 read more »