The President of the State Nuclear Power Technology Corporation (SNPTC) told the reporters recently that in the future the main stream of China’s nuclear planning is to develop the coastal nuclear projects first and then to stimulate the inland projects. Currently the most well prepared inland projects are located in Hunan, Hubei and Jiangxi provinces. He added that Nanyang Nuclear Power Project in Henan Province, a satisfactory inland nuclear site selected by him previously, now is under promotion by relevant departments. It is most likely that Nanyang inland project will be incorporated into the second planning of the inland nuclear power projects, though the exact date has not been confirmed yet.
It is obvious that most of the on-approval nuclear construction is concentrated in the inland areas and the pioneer projects will be AP1000 reactors. It is expected the inland projects will be accelerated as long as the technical difficulties are overcome in the second half of 2017.
According to the investigation of China Nuclear Energy Association, China has already established a comparatively mature nuclear safety regulation and standard system compliant with the latest international codes and standards. And the inland projects will enjoy the same or even more stringent safety requirements compared to the coastal nuclear projects, especially in the aspects of the radioactive effluent release limits.
In the initial stage of the “13th Five-Year Plan” probably the inland projects will start officially.
Nanyang site has already been built for traffic running. The construction budget is around 80billion yuan. It is expected to be established in 4 years with the anticipated sales revenue of 20billion yuan and the taxation of profit 2.6billion yuan.
As per the planning, Nanyang site will adopt AP1000 technology with 2 units in the first stage and totally 6 in the long-term planning. Each unit will need investment of 14 billion yuan, therefore all six units will attract the investment of 80billion yuan. A source revealed that Nanyang project has been listed in the Mid-Long Term Development Program of China’s Nuclear Power and meanwhile CNNC-Henan Nanyang Nuclear Power Company has deployed 70 backbone staff to settle on the site.
