Beijing - For most of the two decades since the Chernobyl disaster, Russia's nuclear construction industry languished as engineers labored to apply the lessons learned from the accident to improve reactor design and safety.
                                       Power stations that were already under construction in Russia at the time of the 1986 accident went into service but no new plants were started.

Now China's ambitious drive to generate more electricity from nuclear energy is accelerating the revival of a once mighty technical giant.

A Russian nuclear technology exporter, AtomStroyExport, has begun testing the first reactor it has built in China at the Tianwan nuclear power plant in Jiangsu Province.

The general manager of the company's representative office in Beijing, Valeriy Kurochkin, said this unit would begin commercial operation in October.

A second reactor and turbine unit now under construction at the Tianwan plant, located outside the city of Lianyonggang, is scheduled to begin supplying power for the local utility next year.

The company is also optimistic that China will use Russian technology in the construction of two more reactor units at the Tianwan plant.

"The safe and reliable operation of the first unit now under commissioning at the Tianwan nuclear power plant will determine the future of Russian companies in the Chinese nuclear power market," Kurochkin said in an interview.

Orders to build nuclear power plants in India and Iran have also allowed Russia to continue developing its nuclear engineering capability while domestic construction stalled.

Moscow has also thrown its weight behind the Russian nuclear industry's drive to win contracts with Chinese power utilities. On a visit to Beijing last month, President Vladimir Putin of Russia said future cooperation on energy between the two sides should include his country's involvement in the construction of new nuclear reactors.

Ulrik Stidbaek, an electricity market expert at the Paris-based International Energy Agency, said that China's plans to expand its nuclear power sector could make it the fastest-growing market for reactors in the world and that Beijing had already shown it was prepared to embrace Russian nuclear technology. 
                                 "All in all, I think China is definitely one of the most, if not the most, important markets at the moment," he said. "That is even more so for Russia."

AtomStroyExport is now locked in a three-way contest with Areva of France and the U.S.-based Westinghouse, a unit of Toshiba, to secure an $8 billion contract to build four advanced reactors for the Chinese power industry.

However, most industry analysts believe the Russian company is a distant third in the running for the contract to build the reactors - two in Guangdong Province and two more in Zhejiang Province.

Kurochkin, a four-decade veteran of Russia's nuclear power industry, refused to comment on speculation surrounding the bidding. But he pointed out that Areva and Westinghouse had both offered to supply reactors that were not yet in commercial operation.

"As far as I know, no decision has been made yet," he said. "But our participation in this tender competition shows our wish to take part in further development of the nuclear power industry in China."

Kurochkin said that his company's existing foothold in China with an advanced reactor design could lead to further orders if China continues to invest heavily in nuclear power.

The accident at Chernobyl in what is now Ukraine killed scores of people and could lead to the eventual deaths of up to 4,000 others who were exposed to radioactive contamination, according to a report last year from an international panel of experts.

Some nuclear energy specialists believe that the flawed design of the Chernobyl reactor had contributed to an accident that unfairly tarnished the image of the entire Russian nuclear industry.

They say that Russian technicians had also produced some safe and reliable reactors and that the continued development of these superior designs means that Russia now offers some of the safest and most advanced reactor design and technology in the world.
                                           "They are very good units," he said. "I would be happy to live next door to one of them."

However, Hore-Lacy said AtomStroyExport would need to offer lower prices to offset the Western edge in technology.

Russia and China signed a contract to build the two Tianwan reactors in 1997 as part of growing energy cooperation between the two countries.

Up to 150 Russian companies and suppliers along with 600 engineers and nuclear specialists are now working on the Tianwan site in a joint effort with the Chinese nuclear industry that recalls the period before 1960, when China depended heavily on itsneighbor for advanced technology.

Kurochkin declined to disclose the Tianwan contract price but he said that it had involved Russian government financing.

He said the 1,060-megawatt Tianwan units were among the most advanced in the world and very close to the so- called third-generation Western designs.

"Actually, this project includes all the technical characteristics of third-generation plants to some extent," he said.

AtomStroyExport was offering a similar design in competition with the third-generation reactors that Areva and Westinghouse were offering China, he said.

No third-generation reactors are yet in operation in any country.

The resurgence of Russia's reactor construction industry comes at a time when the need to curb greenhouse gas emissions has led to what has been described as a global "renaissance" for nuclear energy.

This, combined with a drop in the stocks of nuclear fuel from decommissioned Soviet-era atomic weapons, has led to sharply increased prices for uranium, which is used to power reactors.

China is at the forefront of this revival as it seeks to satisfy its energy- hungry economy and reduce dependence on the coal-fired power plants that are contributing to the air pollution choking major industrial and urban areas. 
                                          There are now nine reactors operating in China and plans to add up to fifty new units, including the two at Tianwan. The investment for all of these projects has been estimated at $50 billion by 2020 in industry publications and reports in the official Chinese media.

Senior Chinese officials say that the share of electricity generated from nuclear power should increase from about 2 percent to more than 4 percent by 2020. Some Chinese industry experts have forecast that nuclear power could account for more than 30 percent of electricity generation by 2060.

After decades where utilities around the world placed very few orders for new reactors, the upcoming Chinese contract is particularly important for Areva and Westinghouse.

For the winner, the opportunity to build a third-generation design could provide a springboard to further business in the United States and Europe.

Beijing had been expected to announce its decision earlier this year, but negotiations are still under way on the terms and degree of technical transfer that the bidders are prepared to offer.

The Chinese authorities have demanded that the bidders share advanced nuclear technology as part of Beijing's efforts to develop its domestic nuclear power industry. A report in the French daily Les ¡§¦chos last month suggested that Areva was out of contention for the contract because it had refused to meet China's demands to hand over technology for one of its reactors.

Areva has refused to comment on the reports but insists that it is still in the running. The newspaper also reported that Westinghouse had offered to sell the plans for its AP1000 reactor and earn an annual royalty from the power plants.

Industry analysts believe that politics will have a major bearing on Beijing's decision, with the Bush administration lobbying strongly for Westinghouse and the French government backing Areva.

If Westinghouse were to win the order, some analysts suggest that this would be announced when President Hu Jintao of China visits Washington this month. A deal of this size would assist Beijing in its efforts to counter growing U.S. resentment over an annual $202 billion trade deficit with China.
               
Ian Hore-Lacy, a spokesman for the World Nuclear Association, a London- based nuclear industry lobby group, said that the reactors installed at Tianwan were close to leading-edge Western designs.
source:International Herald Tribune
tag:new energy,China market,China electricity