(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-02-18 19:33

BEIJING - Chinese Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan Monday called for efforts to accelerate optimizing energy structure and to promote independent development of nuclear power.

Zeng said nuclear power was a sort of clean, high-efficient, safe and reliable energy. He emphasized that pushing forward construction of nuclear power projects was an important measure to speed up the change of economic growth pattern and the restructuring of energy and the national economy at large.

He made the remarks while meeting with the project contractors for the Monday start of construction work on Ningde nuclear power station in the eastern province of Fujian.

According to Zeng, endeavors should be exerted to strengthen absorption of imported nuclear power technologies and achieve independent designing, manufacturing and operating of pressurized water reactors each with an installed capacity of at least one million kilowatts.

China's first nuclear power project located on a sea island, the Ningde station is 143 kilometers away from the provincial capital of Fuzhou. Its first stage involves four generating units each with an installed capacity of one million kw and costs 51.2 billion yuan (US$7.1 billion).

The project will have its first generating unit come on stream in December 2012. Upon completion, the four units will be able to generate 30 billion kilowatt hours of electricity a year.

The project is being built jointly by Guangdong Nuclear Power Investment Co., Ltd., Datang International Power Generation Co., Ltd. and Fujian Coal Industry (Group) Co.,Ltd.

Nuclear plants provide 2.3 percent of China's power and the proportion is planned to rise to 16 percent by 2030.