The Chinese government has inked a deal with Westinghouse Electric Co. today for four new nuclear power plants. The Communist state gets more than the plants though:
The deal calls for Westinghouse to hand over technology for the AP1000 to China’s government-owned State Nuclear Power Technology Corp., making it the basis for Chinese efforts to develop a nuclear industry.
China plans to have 4% of its power produced by nuke plants by 2020.
China has 11 nuclear reactors in operation, all based on technology one generation behind the new Westinghouse model. Three were built with Chinese technology, while others use Russian, French or Canadian know-how.
The new Westinghouse plants are to be built in pairs in the eastern cities of Sanmen in Zhejiang province and Haiyang in Shandong province, both rapidly growing areas. Construction is to start in 2009 and reactors are scheduled to come on line between 2013 and 2015, Westinghouse said.
Meanwhile, America has not built a new nuclear power plant since the 1970s. In America, nuclear power comes in third in production of electricity, at approximately 20% of our base. Almost 80% of France’s base comes from nuclear power.
Environmentalism and a NIMBY attitude keeps America from building new nuke plants. That needs to change.
