China launches new nuclear power plant

BEIJING, April 20 (UPI) -- China says it has begun construction on a nuclear power plant that will use new technologies developed by U.S. firm Westinghouse.

Officials kicked off construction Sunday on the Sanmen plant in eastern China's Zhejiang Province.

The plant will feature the world's first use of new AP 1000 reactors, the state-run Chinese news agency Xinhua reported.

It will have two of the reactors, each capable of generating 1.25 million kilowatts of electricity, and will be built in three phases at a cost of $5.88 billion, officials said. The first unit is scheduled to come online in 2013, followed the next year by Unit 2.

"It is the biggest energy cooperation project between China and the United States," Zhang Guobao, vice minister in charge of China's National Development and Reform Commission, told Xinhua. "It will contribute to the humankind's peaceful use of nuclear power."