New plant gets go-ahead in China

19 July 2010

A two-reactor nuclear power plant at Fangchenggang in autonomous Guangxi province has been approved by Chinese officials. Having already completed site preparation, project lead China Guangdong Nuclear Power Corporation is expected to officially start construction later in July and put the reactors into operation in 2015 and 2016. Fangchenggang will feature two domestically developed CPR-1000 units producing 1037 MWe each for a grand total of 24 billion yuan ($3.5 billion), with four more planned to follow. It is expected that 80% of the components will be sourced from Chinese suppliers. Fangchenggang lies only about 45 kilometres from the border with Vietnam.