Author:Gu Xinping

[CAEA web news] October 19, 2004，Mr.Zhang Huazhu, Chairman of CAEA, met with Mr.Taniguchi, Deputy Director-General of International Atomic Energy Agency, who came to China to participate in the IAEA Conference on Topical Issues in Nuclear Installation Safety. Both sides exchanged the opinions and views on nuclear safety, Asian Nuclear Safety Network(ANSN) and etc. 

Zhang said, in the past years, China scored a great of achievements in the fields of nuclear safety. With the fast development of China’s nuclear power, China was going to further strengthen its nuclear safety supervision and management. The ongoing IAEA Conference on Topical Issues in Nuclear Installation Safety in Beijing had significant and special meaning in this regard. It would not only enhance the mutual understanding among the participating countries in the aspects of nuclear power and nuclear supervision, but also help China to learn the more advanced experiences and good practices from other countries and further improve its capability in the fields of nuclear safety and supervision. 

Mr.Zhang Huazhu also introduced the latest situation in China’s nuclear power development to Mr.Taniguchi. He said, based on the preliminary estimation of China’s National Energy Development Plan, up to 2020, China’s nuclear installed capacity was going to reach 36 GWe or even more, accounting for over 4% of total installed power capacity. In another word, China would have to kick off 2 or 3 Mega-watt nuclear reactors annually. Recently, State Council of China approved 8 nuclear reactor units. Among of them, two PWR reactors would be built in Qinshan Phase II Expansion Project in Zhejiang province and two in  Lingao Expansion Project in Guangdong province. These four units would take the method of duplicating the existing and mature technology to construct. The four Mega-watt reactor units in Sanmen of Zhejiang province and Yangjiang of Guangdong province were going to be subject to an open bidding process for more advanced third –generation nuclear power design. In the end of September, bidding documents had
been distributed to the foreign companies, such as Westinghouse, Framatome and etc. Final contract would be awarded in early 2005. Meanwhile, it did not exclude the possibility that China’s self-reliance PWR technology could be adopted. He also mentioned that China was making efforts to unify the nuclear technology line and introduce the advanced technology to improve the safety and economy of nuclear units, realize the localization of large-scale nuclear reactors and comprehensively improve the China’s nuclear industry.

Mr.Taniguchi highly appreciated the speeding-up nuclear program in China and believed China had made a right decision on the nuclear power development strategy and planning of gradually implementing localization. He indicated that IAEA would continuously support China’s nuclear power development as usual. China and IAEA had enjoyed cooperation over 20 years, he added. With China’s own effort and international cooperation, the nuclear safety in China had largely improved. It increased the confidence of international community and pubic on China’s nuclear power development. He wished both sides would further enhance the cooperation in the fields of nuclear safety. He also proposed that the function of ANSN should be fully utilized to contribute the share of nuclear safety information in this region.  （Gu Xinping）