EDF has become an investor in China’s nuclear programme by finalising an agreement with China Guangdong Nuclear Power Holding Company (CGNPC) to construct and operate two nuclear power plants in the country.
The French utility and CGNPC are to create a joint venture company – Guangdong Taishan Nuclear Power Joint Venture Company Limited (TNPC) – that will build and operate the two EPR reactors at Taishan in the province of Guangdong. EDF will hold a 30 per cent stake in the company for 50 years, the maximum permitted for a joint venture in China.
The Taishan EPR will be modelled on the EPR reactor being built by EDF at Flamanville, France. Preliminary work at the Taishan site started in late 2007 and the first concrete pouring is scheduled for autumn 2009.
The first unit at Taishan is scheduled for commissioning at the end of 2013 and the second in 2015.
Alstom recently announced that CGNPC has awarded it a EUR200 million contract to supply the complete turbine island for Taishan. The order follows a EUR300 million order booked by Alstom and two Chinese partners in early 2008 for the supply of two 1750 MW Arabelle turbine generator packages for the EPR plant.
French nuclear engineering firm Areva is supplying the nuclear island for Taishan under a contract signed in late 2007.
