Nuclear power is China's strategic emerging industry, and promoting nuclear power exports can facilitate the upgrading and transformation of China s foreign trade structure, said Yang Qi, honorary president of the Nuclear Power Institute of China, during the Fourth Session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee. Yang proposed that the nuclear power export should be elevated to a national strategy.
Yang said that currently the conditions of China's nuclear power exports are basically ripe. China accumulated rich experiences and capacity during the more than 20 years in research and development, engineering design, equipment manufacturing, engineering construction and operation and management of nuclear power.
China is now able to independently design and construct 300,000-kilowatt, 600,000-kilowatt and 1-million-kilowatt nuclear power units. China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group and the State Nuclear Power Technology Corporation (SNPTC) are developing third-generation nuclear power technology. That is expected to lead to an indigenous brand for the international market.
Yang has proposed to elevate the promotion of nuclear power exports to a national strategy. The government should support the nuclear power exports strategy by diplomatic, economic cooperative and other means.
Domestic enterprises should participate in bidding on international projects by integrating project construction, equipment engineering, technical support and bank loans as well as carrying out the independent nuclear power brand demonstration projects.
He added that the rollout of the CP1000 pressurized water reactor technology at home could lay a foundation for its overseas expansion. Other support, he suggested, should focus on promoting the research and development of the third-generation nuclear technologies with independent intellectual property rights, expanding the international market, offering more favorable project loans and tax breaks and helping nuclear power exports enterprises to access various types of financing resources.
