Construction Starts on Nuclear Power Plant in South China

Dec 16, 2008

Xinhua - Construction began Tuesday on a nuclear power plant expected to
generate 45 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually.

 The Yangjiang nuclear power plant in Dongping Town, Yangjiang
City, is being built by China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group with an
investment of 70 billion yuan (10.1 billion U.S. dollars).

The plant will have six 1,000-megawatt units with the first unit
to begin operations in 2013. All the units will be built by 2017.

The plant will save 16 million tons of coal and reduce carbon
dioxide emissions, the most prominent greenhouse gas, by 36 million
tons, according to Zhang Guobao, vice minister of the National Development and Reform
Commission.

Vice Premier Li Keqiang on Tuesday said that "the construction of
nuclear power plants was of great importance to safeguard energy
security, to sustain a steady economic growth, and to build a
resource-saving and environment-friendly society."

The development of China's nuclear power plants has entered a
crucial phase, Li said in an instruction.

China plans to develop more nuclear power plants in response to
an energy crunch resulting from fast economic growth. The country
plans to have 40 million kw of installed nuclear capacity by 2020, which would be 4
percent of projected energy supply, or double the current level.

On Nov. 21, the country began the construction of a nuclear power
station in the eastern Fujian Province, with an investment of nearly
100 billion yuan.