Page 8 - AsiaElec Week 25

AsiaElec NUCLEAR AsiaElec
China hints at Belt and Road nuclear expansion
CHINA
NUCLEAR power could play a major role in China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in the next 10 years, as Beijing mulls plans to build up to 30 nuclear reactors abroad.
Wang Shoujun, a standing committee mem- ber of the China People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), said last week that China needed to exploit the opportunities o ered by the BRI and to support the nuclear sector more in order to win business abroad and to support high-end manufacturing capacity at home, Reu- ters reported.
He said that China could build 30 reactors overseas in the next decade, according to a com- ment on the website of the CPPCC, something akin to the upper house of parliament in China, alongside the National People’s Congress.
Wang was previously boss of China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), one of the key players in China’s nuclear sector alongside China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN).
He added that the nuclear business could be worth up to CNY1 trillion ($145 billion) for Chi- nese companies. Up to 41 member states of the BRI have nuclear programmes.
He pinpointed that China’s nuclear technol- ogy, which is centred on the Hualong 1 reactor technology, still needed major improvements. He named better research and development and more localisation of the production of key nuclear components.
However, he said that China o ered custom- ers competitive advantages in terms of costs and technology.
Beijing’s key export product is the third-gen- eration Hualong One reactor, which is a fully localised version of French designs.
Two Hualong One reactors are currently being built in Pakistan – a key country of in u- ence for BRI – while in April Argentina agreed to install two Hualong One at its existing Atucha nuclear complex, with construction starting in 2020. Both are funded by Chinese loans of up to $10 billion.
ere are ve Hualong One reactors planned for Pakistan: four at the Karachi Nuclear Power Complex and one at the Chashma Nuclear Power Plant.
China is in the middle of a reactor-building programme it hoped would serve as a shop win- dow to promote its homegrown Hualong One.
e rst Hualong One units to be constructed will be Fuqing 5 and 6, followed by Fangjiashan 3 and 4 and Fangchenggang 3 and 4.
Beijing is keen to push forward nuclear power a er the pace of approvals at home dipped in the aftermath of the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan.
However, the number of approvals has now resumed to about eight per year. Indeed, Wang, highlighted that there was overcapacity at some Chinese nuclear manufacturers.™
GAS-FIRED GENERATION
Hong Kong power utilities lock in long-term LNG supply
HONG KONG
HONG Kong Electric (HK Electric) and Castle Peak Power Co. (CAPCO) have signed two deals covering both long-term supplies for their Hong Kong O shore LNG terminal project as well as its regasi cation infrastructure.
e two Hong Kong-based power utilities said on June 21 that they had signed a long-term supply agreement with Royal Dutch Shell. Shell Eastern Trading will deliver the supplies to the Hong Kong O shore LNG terminal once it has been completed.
While the LNG supplies will come from Shell’s global portfolio, no further details were
provided. Reuters suggested that the super-ma- jor might supply 1.2m tonnes per year (t/y) for 10 years from 2020, referring to unnamed indus- try reports cited in one of its own reports from March 2018.
e power companies, meanwhile, said in a separate statement that they had reached a long- term charter agreement with Japan’s Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL) for the Challenger oating storage and regasi cation unit (FSRU). e FSRU, which can store up to 263,000 cubic metres of LNG, will supply natural gas to HK Electric and CAPCO’s thermal power plants (TPPs) via two separate
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 25 25•June•2019