China mulls nuclear plant on Southern Island of Hainan

BEIJING—China’s largest nuclear plant builder is in talks with the southern island province of Hainan to construct a reactor there, state media reported Tuesday.
“We finished preliminary talks with senior government officials last week and further negotiations are expected next year,” an unnamed director of China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) told the China Daily.
The site has not yet been chosen and the plant’s size will depend on the power demand forecast for the province, which aims to expand industrial sectors such as petrochemicals and steel, the director said.
The proposal is yet to be approved by the country’s top economic planning body, the National Development and Reform Commission, the report said.
CNNC has plans to build a wide network of plants across coastal provinces including Liaoning, Shandong, Fujian and Guangdong and most have been included in the country’s 11th five-year economic plan (2006-2010).
Earlier reports said China plans to build 40 nuclear reactors over the next 15 years to boost combined nuclear power capacity from the current 8,700 megawatts to 40,000 megawatts by 2020.
China currently has nine nuclear power plants of various sizes in operation, with two more Russian-made reactors expected to go on line by early next year, and eight others already having central government approval.
China has outlined plans to increase the proportion of its electricity generated by nuclear power from the current 2.4 percent to four percent in 15 years’ time.
China relies on coal for 70 percent of its energy demands but the recent economic boom has highlighted the risks of being so overly dependent on one energy source.

—The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item