Daya Bay and beyond

China is planning a large expansion in its installed nuclear capacity from the present 2.1GWe to 20GWe by 2010 and 40GWe by 2020. The interest from Western nuclear plant vendors is considerable. A contract has recently been signed with AECL for two 700MWe CANDU 6 units for the Qinshan Phase III plant. Framatone/GEC-Alstrom have already supplied 900MWe PWRs to the Daya Bay plant and are to supply similar units to the nearby Ling Ao plant, construction of which is due to start in May 1997. There has also been considerable French input into PWRs for the scheduled Qinshan Phase II project. Other major Western suppliers to this latter project are Westinghouse and the Spanish company ENSA. Feasibility studies are being carried out for the construction of two Russian VVER-1000 units in Jaingsu province with design and safety consultancy provided by the Finnish company IVO. Russian technology has been supplied to the Lanzhou enrichment plant. Overall, though, the French company Framatone probably has the strongest foothold currently. Recent foreign policy decisions in the USA are likely to lead to a considerable increase in involvement by American vendors, however. In particular, there is strong Chinese interest in the AP600, the advanced 600MWe PWR designed by Westinghouse. (UK)