China’s nuclear power industry making strides at home and abroad

BOFIT Viikkokatsaus / BOFIT Weekly Review 2015/49

In recent years, China has increased its efforts at developing a national nuclear power industry. Currently, China has 30 operating reactors, 21 reactors under construction and several projects waiting to break ground. About a third of active construction projects globally are located in China. The government wants 100 new reactors brought on line over the next ten years. The push for nuclear power plants is mainly a response to the country’s air pollution problems, which can only be solved by moving to energy production that does not rely on fossil fuels, particularly coal.

China has actively utilised the world’s leading nuclear power technology in joint projects, developing its own expertise and reactor technology. Many nuclear power plants to be soon completed in China are based on domestic “third-generation” reactor technology. The logical next step for China is to export its latest nuclear technology. China’s government has established a goal of exporting eight reactors based on Chinese technology by 2020. Chinese banks participating in project financing help to meet the export target.

China’s nuclear reactor exports have boomed this year, with state nuclear power companies CGN, CNNC and SNPTC joining in a number of international projects. Two projects underway in Pakistan use reactors based on Chinese technology. Projects in the UK were agreed this autumn, two of which are led by the French EDF with Chinese partners. The construction work of the first plant is getting underway. The second two-reactor plant, still under negotiation, would be the first nuclear power plant built in the West based on Chinese technology. CGN will begin construction in 2017 in Romania of a plant that uses Canadian technology. CNNC will begin construction of two nuclear power plants in Argentina in 2016 and 2017, which will be 85 % financed by Chinese banks. The second reactor will use Chinese technology. SNPTC is in negotiations with Turkey and South Africa.

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