50b yuan Sino-French nuclear power joint venture in Taishan launched
The country's largest nuclear power joint venture has started with the 50 billion yuan (HK$56.78 billion) plant in Taishan in the Pearl River delta.
The inauguration ceremony for the 3,500-megawatt Guangdong Taishan Nuclear Power Joint Venture between the world's largest nuclear power plant operator Electricite de France and state-owned China Guangdong Nuclear Power Holding took place in Beijing yesterday and was witnessed by French Prime Minister Francois Fillon.
Comprising two 1,750 MW nuclear generating units, the world's largest, the plant is part of China's strategy to raise output of clean energy to relieve its pollution problem amid rapid economic growth.
The plant's so-called third-generation technology, with improved safety features, will be provided by France's Areva, the world's biggest maker of nuclear reactors.
The European pressurised reactors (EPR) technology is designed by Areva and Germany's Siemens.
Two other pressurised reactors nuclear plants have already started construction, in Finland and France, but none has started commercial operation. EPRis a rival technology to United States-based Westinghouse Electric's AP1000 technology, which will be deployed in other nuclear plants under construction in Zhejiang and Shandong provinces.
In August last year, EDF and China Guangdong Nuclear signed a final agreement to form the joint venture to build and operate the two reactors in Taishan.
They were estimated to cost 49.85 billion yuan of total investment, Xinhua reported yesterday.
Two years ago, when Areva announced it won the contract, it estimated their cost at Euro8 billion (HK$88.84 billion) and called it the biggest deal in the industry's history.
The first reactor was scheduled to come on stream by the end of 2013 and the second one by October the following year, Xinhua said.
China is undertaking the world's largest nuclear power plant construction programme and seeks to have 15 per cent of energy output come from clean non-fossil sources by 2020.
