China looks to buy 8 more AP1000 nuclear reactors and is accelerating nuclear reactor approvals

Westinghouse is in talks to sell eight more AP1000 nuclear Reactors to China for about $24 billion.

China currently has 20 nuclear power reactors online, with another 28 under construction, as it seeks to reduce its reliance on costly and polluting fossil fuels to generate electricity. Sun Qin, chairman of major nuclear plant operator China National Nuclear Corp (CNNC) recently told Reuters another 20 nuclear reactors may be built within the next six years.

Nuclear installed capacity currently stands at 15.69 GW. China had 15 nuclear power generating units in operation with a total installed capacity of 12.54 GW in October 2012. China turned on some reactors in 2013. China produced 110.7 Terawatt hours of electricity in 2013 from about 14 GWe of nuclear reactors.

In 2013, Worldwide 100 GWe of installed solar photovoltaic power produced about 110 Terawatt hours. Therefore, the 14 GWe of nuclear power in China matched the worldwide power generation of solar power in 2013.

Nuclear, Wind, Hydro and Solar are all better energy sources than fossil fuels (coal, oil, natural gas) in terms of death per terawatt hour and the environment.

The eight new Westinghouse reactors will be built at four locations including Sanmen, in the coastal Zhejiang province, and Haiyang in northeastern Shandong province, where another four Westinghouse AP1000 reactors are under construction.

Read more »