Michele Kearney's Nuclear Wire: China National Nuclear Corp

Showing posts with label China National Nuclear Corp. Show all posts

Monday, November 29, 2010

Westinghouse Expects Additional AP1000 Nuclear Reactor Orders From China

Image via WikipediaWestinghouse Electric Co., owned by Toshiba Corp., expects additional orders for its third- generation AP1000 reactors from China after selling four units three years ago to the world’s fastest-growing nuclear market.
“There are going to be more AP1000s and the success of the current ones will determine that,” Jack Allen, Westinghouse’s president for Asia, said in an interview in Beijing today, adding talks haven’t formally begun. “There are no guarantees. Westinghouse is working very hard with customers here.”
China and India are leading the biggest atomic expansion since the decade after the 1970s oil crisis to cut pollution and power economies. Under a 2007 accord, Westinghouse is jointly building four AP1000 reactors with companies led by China National Nuclear Corp., and has transferred nuclear technology as it seeks to forge a lasting partnership with future rivals.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-25/westinghouse-expects-more-reactor-orders-from-china-on-clean-energy-demand.html

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Westinghouse Expects Additional AP1000 Nuclear Reactor Orders From China

Westinghouse Electric Co., owned by Toshiba Corp., expects additional orders for its third- generation AP1000 reactors from China after selling four units three years ago to the world’s fastest-growing nuclear market.
“There are going to be more AP1000s and the success of the current ones will determine that,” Jack Allen, Westinghouse’s president for Asia, said in an interview in Beijing today, adding talks haven’t formally begun. “There are no guarantees. Westinghouse is working very hard with customers here.”
China and India are leading the biggest atomic expansion since the decade after the 1970s oil crisis to cut pollution and power economies. Under a 2007 accord, Westinghouse is jointly building four AP1000 reactors with companies led by China National Nuclear Corp., and has transferred nuclear technology as it seeks to forge a lasting partnership with future rivals.
“It seems entirely reasonable to me to say that the company will get a lot more out of China,” said Rajesh Panjwani, an analyst at CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets in Hong Kong. “Westinghouse has been selling nuclear technology in Korea for almost 20 years and it still needs Westinghouse’s assistance.”
China’s 11 existing nuclear power generating units all use second-generation technology, the official Xinhua News Agency said on July 22. The nation plans at least 60 new reactors by 2020, Xu Yuming, executive director of the China Nuclear Energy Association, said on July 6.More at:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-25/westinghouse-expects-more-reactor-orders-from-china-on-clean-energy-demand.html

Monday, November 22, 2010

China National Nuclear Starts Building Hainan Reactor

Nov. 22 (Bloomberg) -- China National Nuclear Corp., the country’s biggest operator of nuclear power plants, started construction of a 650-megawatt reactor in the southern island province of Hainan.

The No. 2 reactor, one of two to be built in the first phase, will start commercial operations in 2015, China National Nuclear said in a statement on its website today. Investment in the initial phase of the Changjiang plant will exceed 20 billion yuan ($3 billion), the Beijing-based company said.

China wants at least 15 percent of its energy mix to come from non-fossil fuel by 2020 and is accelerating construction of nuclear plants to help meet that goal. The Hainan facility will join 23 other reactors being built in China, the nation with the biggest nuclear-power capacity under construction, according to the official Xinhua News Agency in May. More at:

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-11-21/china-national-nuclear-starts-building-hainan-reactor.html

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

FACTBOX-China's nuclear power plants and plans Reuters Africa The following lists China's nuclear power plants already operating, under construction, approved by the government or planned.

BEIJING, Nov 16 (Reuters) - China National Nuclear Corp
(CNNC) started commercial operation of a 650-MW nuclear
generating unit in Qinshan in coastal Zhejiang province last
month, in line with earlier Reuters report. [ID:nBJK000071]

China now has 13 working reactors with 10.8 gigawatts
of total generating capacity.

China's official nuclear capacity target for 2020 remains 40
GW, less than 5 percent of its current total installed capacity,
or enough to power Spain. However, officials said China is
considering raising the goal to 80 GW or more for 2020.

The following lists China's nuclear power plants already
operating, under construction, approved by the government or
planned. More at:

http://af.reuters.com/article/energyOilNews/idAFTOE68F07920101116

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Nuclear Exporters Should Take up China-Pakistan Reactor Deal, U.S. Urges

A high-ranking U.S. official yesterday said a multinational nuclear export control group should consider a plan by China to build another two atomic energy reactors in nuclear-armed Pakistan, Reuters reported (see GSN, Sept. 22).
The Chinese Foreign Ministry this week confirmed reports of a project by the state-controlled China National Nuclear Corp. to construct two 300-megawatt reactors at Pakistan's Chashma nuclear site. Beijing has already built two reactors in the South Asian state and is rumored to be in talks for a fifth plant.
"We look to engage with China on these particular issues... my focus is to use the framework of the mechanisms that we have in the Nuclear Suppliers Group." National Nuclear Security Administration chief Thomas D'Agostino said while attending the International Atomic Energy Agency General Conference in Vienna, Austria. "We are going to use the Nuclear Suppliers Group to the best of our abilities and use all of the tools that we have in that forum to address specific nuclear arrangements that are made, whether it is with China, Pakistan or a variety of other countries."
The United States has argued the Pakistan-China deal would require a waiver from the 46-member group, which seeks to restrict atomic exports to countries that have signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Islamabad has not signed the pact.
While negotiating a landmark atomic trade deal with India -- another nuclear-armed nation that has not joined the nuclear accord -- the Bush administration sought and won a special exemption from the group. During the negotiations, China was among a group of nations to criticize the deal before ultimately granting the waiver.
The atomic energy deal has been a source of concern for observers because of Pakistan's history as a nuclear proliferator, mounting instability within the country and worries the agreement would undermine the nonproliferation regime.
Beijing said Tuesday it had asked the International Atomic Energy Agency to "exercise safeguards and oversight of this project." An informed diplomat, however, indicated it was up to the Islamabad and not Beijing to invite the nuclear watchdog to monitor the work.
"I believe in the end that all reactors involved in civil uses should be under IAEA safeguards," D'Agostino said (Dahl/Westall, Reuters, Sept. 22).
Pakistani Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Ansar Parvez said yesterday IAEA officials should not pick and choose which member states receive agency help in the building of atomic power capabilities, Dawn reported.
He said Pakistan had more than four decades experience operating nuclear reactors safely and had the technical and engineering resources needed to continue to operate atomic plants. Parvez also touted Islamabad's membership in several multilateral conventions as well as its security and safety capabilities (Amin Ahmed, Dawn, Sept. 23).
Meanwhile, D'Agostino said yesterday that nations such as Jordan had the right to enrich their domestic uranium resources, Bloomberg reported (see GSN, June 29).
"We believe quite strongly that nations have the right to develop their civil programs for civil purposes," D'Agostino said in response to a question about Jordan's nuclear development.
"We are not trying to tell other nations that you can't have enrichment," the U.S. official said.
Obama administration officials had been reported to be pressuring Amman to relinquish its NPT-guaranteed right of domestic uranium enrichment in order to win a nuclear civilian collaboration deal from the United States.
Washington has been wary of more countries in the Middle East gaining mastery of the full nuclear fuel cycle, which could allow a country to independently develop nuclear weapons material in addition to producing civilian atomic energy (Tirone/Razzouk, Bloomberg, Sept. 22).

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

China Goes Public on Pakistani Reactor Plans

Wednesday, Sept. 22, 2010

China yesterday offered the most authoritative confirmation to date of its intention to construct two new atomic reactors in Pakistan, Reuters reported. However, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said she was unaware of discussions to build a fifth power plant in the nuclear-armed South Asian nation (see GSN, Sept. 21).
"This project is based on an agreement signed between the two countries in 2003 about cooperation in the nuclear power field," spokeswoman Jiang Yu said to journalists of a plan by the state-controlled China National Nuclear Corp. to construct a third and fourth reactor at the Chashma nuclear site in Punjab.
Her remarks seemed to indicate China might not feel obligated to bring the project before the Nuclear Suppliers Group for approval. The 46-member group, which Beijing joined in 2004, seeks to limit atomic exports to nations that have signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Pakistan has not signed the accord and countries such as the United States and India have asserted China would need a waiver from the export group to move forward with the deal.
New Delhi, Islamabad's nuclear-armed rival, received such an exemption allowing it to conduct atomic trade with the United States and other nations (see GSN, Sept. 8).
"China has already notified the International Atomic Energy Agency about the relevant details, and invited the IAEA to exercise safeguards and oversight of this project," Jiang said.
Until now, Beijing officials have disclosed little about plans for the two new 300-megawatt units in Pakistan. Information has been gleaned from Chinese nuclear firms' new contract announcements.
It falls to to Pakistan and not China to invite the international atomic watchdog to monitor the Chashma proceedings, an informed diplomat indicated.
"The IAEA can only place a facility under nuclear safeguards at the request of the country that it is in," the diplomat said. "If a country requests the agency to safeguard a facility then the agency would normally comply."
The U.N. agency's safeguards operations are intended to ensure that resources from civilian atomic operations are not turn to military applications.
China's growing atomic energy collaboration with the South Asian nation has unnerved observers in the United States, India and elsewhere given Pakistan's track record as a nuclear proliferator, mounting extremist activity within the country and the potential for the deal to undermine the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
On the China National Nuclear Corp.'s Monday announcement that it was in discussions to build a one-gigawatt reactor in Pakistan, Jiang said, "We don't understand this matter. You can make further inquiries with the company" (Chris Buckley, Reuters, Sept. 21).
Energy-poor Pakistan has explained its atomic collaboration with China as necessary for economic growth, the Asia Times Online reported today.
"We are facing acute energy shortages and these nuclear power plants are important for us to overcome these," an informed high-level Pakistani government official told Reuters. "We as well as China have said time and again that all this cooperation is under the safeguards of the IAEA and there should not be any worries or concerns about it."
Though Pakistan has not signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, Islamabad and Beijing argue the precedent for the deal was set by the 2008 nuclear trade deal which permitted U.S. nuclear firms to export their products to India in exchange for New Delhi permitting IAEA monitoring of nonmilitary atomic installations.
Pakistan has sought to win a similar atomic trade deal with Washington, which has thus far demurred. The RAND Corp. recently called on the Obama administration to rethink its stance on the matter.
"The deal could be based on an exclusive relationship with the United States, rather than seeking broad accommodation with the Nuclear Suppliers Group," a RAND study stated (Syed Fazl-e-Haider, Asia Times Online, Sept. 22

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

China nuclear firm unveils huge investment plan

by Staff Writers Beijing (AFP) Sept 21, 2010 China's main nuclear power company plans to invest nearly 120 billion dollars to expand its business over the next decade, state media said Tuesday, amid efforts to boost renewable energy sources. To fund the 800-billion-yuan spending spree, state-run China National Nuclear Corp (CNNC) intends to list its subsidiary, CNNC Nuclear Power Co Ltd, the China Daily said, citing senior officials from both companies.
"We plan to rope in strategic investors by the end of this year," said Chen Hua, president of CNNC Nuclear Power Co Ltd.
"Our company will get ready for listing in the first half of next year," Chen said, without specifying which stock market it was targeting.
A separate report on Tuesday said CNNC was in talks with Pakistan to build a one-gigawatt nuclear power plant in the South Asian country.
CNNC, which has already helped Pakistan build a civilian reactor at Chashma in Punjab province, is already finishing a second one there and has agreed contracts to build two others.
"Both sides are in discussions over the CNNC exporting a one-gigawatt nuclear plant to Pakistan," company vice president Qiu Jiangang was quoted as saying by the Wall Street Journal.
Officials at CNNC had no immediate comment when contacted by AFP.
Beijing has stepped up investment in nuclear power in an effort to slash carbon emissions and reduce the nation's heavy reliance on coal, which accounts for 70 percent of its power needs but is highly polluting.
The world's second-largest economy, which outpaced Japan in the second quarter, aims to get 15 percent of its power from renewable sources by 2020.
Zhang Guobao, head of the National Energy Administration, said late last year that China had 11 nuclear power reactors in operation with a capacity of 9.1 gigawatts.
China aims to increase nuclear power capacity to 70-80 gigawatts by 2020, accounting for about five percent of the country's total installed power capacity, the report said, citing unidentified industry sources.
The government said previously the target was 40 gigawatts.