China to build at least 60 nuclear plants in coming decade

China plans to build more than 60 nuclear plants in the coming decade, a top Chinese industry official said on Friday. Zheng Mingguang, vice president and chief nuclear designer at China''s State Nuclear Power Technology Corporation (SNPTC), told Reuters at the World Nuclear Association conference in London that China would build about 30 reactors in the next five years and more in the five years after that. He said that each of China''s major nuclear companies - SNPTC, CNNC and CGN - would start building a minimum of two new reactors a year.
Zheng said that the 60 new plants would include between six and 10 CAP1000 reactors, which are Chinese versions of the AP1000 made by Toshiba-owned Westinghouse. The first batch of six will include CNNC building two new reactors at Sanmen in Zhejiang Province, where Westinghouse is set to complete construction of AP1000s for the plant''s first two units early next year. SNPTC will build two additional reactors at Haiyang in Shandong province, where Westinghouse is also building two AP1000s. CGN will build two reactors at Lufeng in Guandong province.