China set to approve four nuclear reactors soon

SINGAPORE, May 31 (Reuters)

China is set to give final approval as early as June to a plan to build four nuclear reactors by 2010, as the world's fastest-growing power market grapples with a growing supply gap, Chinese nuclear experts said on Monday.

The projects, with total generating capacity of 3,200 megawatts (MW) at an estimated cost of $4 billion, would be built in Qinshan, in eastern Zhejiang province, and Ling Ao, in south China's Guangdong province.

The four reactors would get more swift approval from Beijing than others in the pipeline as they would largely be replicas of current operating reactors using Chinese and French technologies, the experts said.

"The approval should come very soon. All we need is a procedure to get the final document signed by the State Council," said one expert close to the progress of China's new nuclear plants, referring to the top government body, the Cabinet.

State-run China National Nuclear Corp (CNNC) and Guangdong Nuclear Power Group, operators of the new projects, aimed to start building the reactors by the end of 2005 and complete construction within five years, the Beijing-based experts said.

The two operators were expected to issue an international tender for key equipment such as big pressure vessels -- used to contain reactors -- and the main pipes. But Chinese firms would be in charge of engineering and construction work.

A worsening electricity shortage and frequent brown-outs are prodding the world's economic powerhouse to hasten development of its nuclear power sector, which is forecast to take up to six percent of China's power mix by 2020 from 1.4 percent last year.

FOUR OTHER REACTORS

"The government appears keener this time than operators to push forward the new plants because of serious power shortages, which is acute on the east coast," said an official with CNNC, the dominant builder of nuclear plants.

Chinese state media said on Sunday power outages had grown in frequency in 2004, with three-quarters of its 31 provinces and regions suffering brown-outs in the first three months. Factories across the nation were bracing for another summer of power cuts.

Power demand in the world's second-largest electricity market is expected to rise 11 percent to 2.09 trillion kilowatt hours in 2004 from a year earlier. Analysts have said China would lead the world's power demand growth at an annual rate of 4.3 percent between 2001 and 2025.

Also on Beijing's plate are another four 1,000-MW reactors each costing about $1.5 billion planned to be built at Sanmen in Zhejiang province and Yangjiang, in Guangdong.

Experts said the fate of these four reactors were uncertain as China had yet to decide where to source the technologies even though operators hoped to tender for equipment later this year.

The choice is between the most advanced U.S. technologies led by Pittsburg-based Westinghouse Electric Co, or those dominated by French companies.

China imported eight of the 11 reactors that are either in operation or under construction. The suppliers include Framatome ANP, a venture between France's Areva and Germany's Siemens , Electricite de France [EDF.UL], Atomic Energy of Canada, an unlisted global nuclear equipment maker, and companies from Russia.

China runs 6,200 MW at eight nuclear generators all in the east coast and is building another three, which would bring total capacity to 8,800 MW by the end of 2005.

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