China to have 70 GW nuclear power capacity by 2020

BEIJING, Nov 2 - China's nuclear power generation capacity could reach 70 gigawatts (GW) by 2020, an industry official said on Monday, three quarters higher than an existing official target.

"If you add existing capacity and capacity already being planned, you get more than 60 GW," Pan Zhiqiang, director of science and technology at China National Nuclear Corporation, China's leading nuclear power developer, told an industry forum in Beijing. "Reaching 70 GW will not be a problem."

China was still studying a revision of its official target of nuclear power capacity for 2020 despite widespread talk of a sharp rise due to an increasing need to curb pollution, Zhang Guobao, China's energy chief said on October 23.

Beijing plans to have 40 GW of nuclear power generating capacity and 18 GW of capacity under construction by 2020.

Pan said China had enough uranium for 40 GW of nuclear power plants.

"People say uranium is not very plentiful, but development (of uranium mines) is still not enough (for capacity of more than 40 GW)," he said.

China has 11 reactors with a total of 9.07 GW of nuclear power capacity.