China starts 1st nuclear power generator since 2007

China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group, one of China's two leading nuclear power developers, started generating power on Thursday from a new unit that is expected to be commercially operational by October after a ramp-up, the group said.

The reactor, the twelfth in China, has generating capacity of 1.08 gigawatts and adopts the CPR1000 pressurised water reactor technology that is based on European technologies but with some Chinese improvements.

The reactor, one of the two making up the second phase of Ling'ao in southern Guangdong province, would be China's first nuclear power generating unit to be brought online since 2007 after China National Nuclear Corp started the second nuclear power generator in Tianwan in eastern Jiangsu province.

Tianwan's two generators use Russian technologies. Ling'ao's second generating unit in its second phase is expected to start generating power in June 2011, China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group said.

China is now the world's largest construction site for nuclear power plants and a testing ground for different technologies, with more than 20 reactors or about 25.4 GW of capacity under construction that are based on its own technology or technologies from France, Canada and the United States.