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05/05/2024 02:57:57 pm

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China Revives First Nuclear Power Project After Fukushima Disaster

China's nuclear reactor in Guandong Province, Oct. 17, 2013

(Photo : Reuters/Bobby Yip) Workers (bottom) stand in front of a nuclear reactor as part of the Taishan Nuclear Power Plant seen under construction in Taishan, Guangdong province, October 17, 2013.

China is set to begin the construction of a major domestic nuclear power project in the province of Liaoning, indicating the country's readiness to revive its nuclear industry, which slowed down as an effect of the Fukushima disaster in Japan.

The Chinese government is now allowing the China General Nuclear Power Group to produce two one-gigawatt (GW) reactors, which represents the second phase of a previous project dubbed as "Hongyanhe."

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The nuclear power expansion project will cost about $100 billion.

Once completed, it will raise China's nuclear capacity from the present 20.3 gigawatt, to 58 gigawatt.

China hopes that by 2020, at least three percent of its electricity consumption will be filled up by nuclear power plants.

Government had recently exercised caution in building nuclear plants and it implemented a temporary freeze on the activities of the nuclear industry, after seeing the devastation in Fukushima way back in 2011.

China went on a safety review of its nuclear facilities for one year.

By the end of 2012, the ban was eventually lifted.

But even then, government did not renew its interest in nuclear projects.

It is only now that Beijing's mood has changed.

But at the same time, it promises to uphold the highest safety standards in the construction sites.

China General Nuclear's general manager, Yang Xiao Feng, says project "Hongyanhe" will use the home-grown "third generation" reactor technology called "ACPR1000."

Aside from reviving its nuclear industry, China also wants to sell two other existing third-generation reactors, Hualong 1 and CAP14000, to foreign customers.

The two reactors are valued at hundreds of billions of dollars.

But before China can find buyers, industry executive and analysts say, China will still need to prove its competence when it comes to manufacturing reactors that are safe to operate, right within its own shores.

China General Nuclear is the state-owned parent company of CGN Power, which raised $3.2 billion in an initial public offering in Hong Kong last year.

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