China to Begin Construction on First Nuclear Power Units Since 2016, an Industrial Info Market Brief

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According to China's Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the environmental impact assessments for China General Nuclear Power Corporation's Taipingling Nuclear Power Station Phase I project and CNNC Guodian Zhangzhou Energy Company Limited's Zhangzhou Nuclear Power Station Phase I project were approved on March 18. Each of the projects will be furnished with two Hualong One pressurized water reactors, driving two 1,250-megawatt steam generating units.

The first concrete date for the first unit of both projects is expected to be in June 2019, with the second unit to be begun 10 months later. Total investment value of the two projects will be more than $12 billion.

This will be the first official kickoff of a new nuclear power project in China since 2016. According to the middle- and long-term development plan for nuclear power in China, the total installed capacity of operational nuclear power will be 58 gigawatts (GW), with another 30 GW under construction. To achieve this goal, China will begin construction on about 30 1-GW units in the next two years.