The Chinese government will build twenty floating reactors in the South China Sea. The objective is to provide electricity to artificial islands, especially the Paracel and Spratly islands. China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Taiwan claim these territories.
Liu Zhengguo, head of the China Shipbuilding Industry Corp., which is in charge of designing and building platforms, said the nuclear power plant they created would be a growing trend. Each unit cost 14 Billion Chinese Yuan ( 2,3 Billion USD).
CSIC plans to expand the number of units as a cheaper alternative to transmit power from mainland China. The cost of a diesel generator at sea is 2 yuan per kilowatt, while the price of a nuclear plant can be 0.9 yuan.
In addition to being an energy distributor, the floating nuclear power plant will accelerate the exploitation of oil, natural gas, and flammable minerals found on the seabed.
China has built a mini-reactor to drive submarines since the 1970s. If the construction goes according to plan, the first nuclear reactor floating in the Asian sea will be fully functional by 2021.
