Welcome to AtomWatch - world nuclear power news and analysis

This blog is aimed at tracing the world news related to nuclear power development internationally and in particular countries. Being an independent resource, we accept all kinds of opinions, positions and comments, and welcome you to discuss the posts and tell us what you think.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

China's quake-hit province to build nuclear power station

China's earthquake-devastated Sichuan province plans to build its first nuclear power station in five years on a site with sound "geological structure", state media said.
Findings of a feasibility study of the USD 3.7 billion project with an installed capacity of four million to six million KWh would soon be submitted to the country's top economic planner - the National Development and Reform Commission, an official said.

"Construction of the station will begin once we have received approval, and will take five years to complete," Zhao Hua, head of the Nuclear Power Institute of China, was quoted as saying by the state-run China Daily.

The project would come up at Sanba village which a team of experts visited last year and reported that its geological structure was sound, he said.

The site is to the east of Chengdu, the provincial capital of Sichuan whose western areas were ravaged by the 8-magnitude temblor on May 12 that has killed nearly 70,000 people and left several thousands more missing in the deadliest natural disaster in 30 years.

"There were no signs of any subsidence or landslips," Zhao said.

Sichuan's 68 per cent of energy needs are met by hydropower but it still experiences shortages in the dry season, Li Chongxi, Deputy Secretary of Sichuan's Provincial Committee of the Communist Party, said.

Sichuan is home to the Nuclear Power Institute of China, the southwest Electric Power Design Institute, Dongfang Electric and Yibin Nuclear fuel plant.

The province has "all the right conditions" for development of nuclear power, he added.

(Source: Press Trust of India)

No comments: