Xudabao / China And Russia Ready To Sign $1.7 Billion Deal For New Units

Under the contract state-owned China National Nuclear Corporation will procure “solutions” from Russia for the two units, the reports said.

In April Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom said it expected construction of Xudabao-3 to begin in October 2021 and of Xudabao-4 in August 2022.

The Xudabao project, together with Tianwan nuclear station in Jiangsu province, eastern China, is part of a memorandum of understanding signed in June by CNNC and Rosatom that will involve the construction of four VVER-1200 reactors in China to be commissioned throughout the 2020s.

In April 2014, the Xudabao site was approved for the construction of two Westinghouse AP1000 nuclear power units with the option of building four more units. According to International Atomic Energy Agency statistics, construction of the two AP1000s has not yet begun.

The site was initially planned to have six AP1000 units, but media reports have said only the first two AP1000s are still planned with the further two units to be Russian VVERs.

China has ambitious nuclear plans with an official target of 58 GW of installed nuclear capacity by 2020, up from almost 36 GW produced by 46 operational reactor units today.

According to Shanghai-based energy consultancy Nicobar, China’s goal is to have 110 nuclear units in commercial operation by 2030, but this target is likely to be adjusted in the next Five-Year Plan, the first draft of which will appear this year.

A forecast released last month by the China Electricity Council said the country will fall short of its nuclear power generation capacity target for 2020.

The country’s installed nuclear power generation capacity is expected to reach 53 GW next year, below the 58 GW target, council vice-chairman Wei Shaofeng told an industry conference in Beijing, according to local media reports.