China has given the green light to a plan to start building the third phase of its Tianwan nuclear power plant on the east coast from October next year, a government agency has announced. Two new reactors, each with a capacity of one gigawatt, will be built at the site in Jiangsu province, the state-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) said in a statement on its website Wednesday.
The statement did not specify which technology would be used for the third phase of the Tianwan plant, which will eventually have eight reactors and a total capacity of around eight gigawatts.
China, driven by its fast growing economy over the last decade, has been actively building up its atomic energy generation capacity as a means of meeting ever-increasing domestic consumption. The government had set a target for nuclear power plants to reach a capacity of 40 gigawatts by 2020. But some reports have suggested the goal could be lifted to 60-70 gigawatts, which would be necessary if China is to meet its goal of raising the share of nuclear power in the overall energy mix to five percent.