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BEIJING - South China's Guangdong province, the country's manufacturing hub, plans to spend 74 billion yuan ($13.5 billion) building three nuclear power stations by 2010, state media reported yesterday.
The investment would go into the second phase of Lingao Nuclear Power Plant and the first phases of the Yangjiang and Taishan projects, China Daily reported, quoting the head of Guangdong Development and Reform Commission, Chen Shanru.
Last week China awarded US-based Westinghouse Electric (now owned by Japan's Toshiba) a US$5.3 billion ($7.5 billion) contract to build China's third generation nuclear power plants.
Guangdong, China's biggest provincial economy, now accounts for about 46 per cent of China's total installed nuclear power capacity of 8.7 gigawatts (GW).
That share is set to rise to 60 per cent by 2020, when Guangdong will have 24GW nuclear power capacity, the paper said.
The world generated about 15 per cent of electricity from nuclear power last year.
- REUTERS
