Present state of nuclear power business in China

This article presented present state of nuclear power business in China based on latest information obtained at visit at nuclear power related facilities in December 2010. China Atomic Energy Authority (CAEA) promoted nuclear power, while National Nuclear Safety Administration (NNSA) was an independent regulatory body of nuclear power. Construction of nuclear power was promoted by three national nuclear engineering development corporations: China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), China Guangdon Nuclear Power Corporation (CGNPC) and State Nuclear Power Technology Corporation (SNPTC). In China, 13 nuclear power reactors were in operation and 27 under construction. Shortage of nuclear engineers became evident with rapid growth of nuclear power, which forced delay of nuclear power construction schedule. Future strategies of reactor type varied domestic, French and US ones respectively dependent on CNNC, CGNPC and SNPTC, CNNC seemed to change from third generation reactor (CNP 1000) to second one (CP 1000) due to regulatory licensing difficulty of NNSA. As for advanced reactor development, large scale PWR project, HTR project and FBR development project were proceeding. As HTR project was selected as high-priority project, an experimental reactor (HTR-10) was critical in 2000 and construction of demonstration reactor started in 2009. (T. Tanaka)