Foreign bid call on nuclear plants ( 2003-10-24 10:19) (China Daily HK Edition)
The government is working to invite foreign companies to bid for designing
and building its four new nuclear power generators that involve contracts worth
billions of US dollars.
Two major domestic nuclear power firms, China National Nuclear Corp (CNNC)
and Guangdong Nuclear Power Group, are preparing tender documents which they
plan to complete by the end of this year, according to CNNC officials.
The tender offer comes after the government announced that it plans to start
the construction of four new 1,000-megawatt nuclear power units in Sanmen, East
China's Zhejiang Province and in Lingdong, South China's Guangdong Province,
before 2005.
Major international names such as Framatome, Alstom, Electricite de France
and Westinghouse are battling hard to seize the contracts.
Yu Jianfeng, director of the Nuclear Power Department of CNNC, said once the
foreign bidders are selected, his company will negotiate with the partner to try
to use as much domestic technology and design as possible in the new generators.
"As the largest domestic nuclear power plant owner, we have both the
technology and experience in building various nuclear power plants," said Yu.
"We are capable of playing a bigger role in the design of new plants."
China has imported eight of its eleven existing nuclear power generators from
France, Canada and Russia. The first and second phase of the Qinshan plant in
East China's Zhejiang Province is the only one that is installed with Chinese
nuclear power generators.
Kang Rixin, the general manager of CNNC, said its three design institutions
are working hard to design key components, including the reactor, for the new
plants.
The company officials made the remarks to reporters Thursday before attending
a ceremony marking the successful operation of the third phase of Qinshan
Nuclear Plant, in which is installed China's first heavy-water reactor using
Canadian Candu technology, and which is the largest Sino-Canadian co-operation
project.
The Qinshan III phase is installed with two 700-megawatt nuclear power
generators.
The first generator started commercial operations last December.
The second one commenced operation 112 days ahead of schedule in July,
setting a world record for the shortest construction period.
As of yesterday, the two Qinshan III generators have produced 6.2 billion
kilowatt hours of electricity.
Thanks to its good management, the company has cut investment by 2.5 billion
yuan (US$302 million), which accounts for more than 10 per cent of the
originally planned 23.9 billion yuan (US$2.9 billion), said Kang.