China’s inland N-power projects to use Westinghouse technology
09 Feb 2010
Beijing: China has completed design work for three nuclear power plants, which will be the first to be based inland. All of China's existing nuclear projects are on the coast.
All these projects will use Westinghouse's third-generation AP1000 technology, according to the China Daily newspaper. Westinghouse is now a unit of Japan's Toshiba.
Construction on the three projects will start this year, according to Wang Binghua, chairman of China's State Nuclear Technology Corp (SNPTC). It said future inland projects would also use AP1000 technology.
The projects are to be located at Taohuajiang in Hunan province, Xianning in Hubei province and Pengze in Jiangxi province, the paper said.
Westinghouse, along with US engineering firm Shaw Group Inc, are already building four AP1000 reactors at two sites in Shandong and Zhejiang provinces.
Along with India, China too is planning a massive switch over from fossil and hydro-based power to nuclear sources in order to meet huge domestic demand.
The demand from both the Asian economic powerhouses has sparked huge competition amongst the world's nuclear technology and material suppliers. Westinghouse is up against France's Areva, Russia's Rosatom and domestic technology for market share in Mainland China.
Two Areva-designed third-generation reactors are already under construction in southeast China's Guangdong province.
