China State Council expands nuclear

BEIJING, Nov. 5 (UPI) -- The Chinese State Council approved a plan to expand nuclear generation by 23 million kilowatts by 2020 from 2005 levels.

It’s estimated that the cost of building the 23 million installed kilowatts worth of generating units will be about $60 billion, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

After installation is complete in 2020 China should have 40 million kilowatts of nuclear power, according to the plan submitted by the National Development and Reform Commission; nuclear will represent about 4 percent of China's total installed power-generating capacity.

Thirteen coastal sites have been selected for new nuclear plants, including four in Zhejiang province, one in Jiangsu province, three in Guangdong province, two in Shandong province and three in Liaoning and Fujian provinces.

China signed an agreement with U.S.-based Westinghouse Electric Co. in July to build four nuclear power plants in China and transfer core technologies for third-generation AP1000 reactors.

China has 11 nuclear power reactors in operation and is the second-largest power consumer in the world after the United States, but it gets most of its power from coal.