China's nuke power capacity needs to be raised seven-fold by 2020: Official

Beijing, Aug 28 (ANI): A senior official at the Energy Bureau of China's National Development and Reform Commission has said the country needs to raise its nuclear power capacity to 75 megawatts by 2020, eight times that of its current nine-megawatt capacity, to offset the pressure of emission reduction.

"At least 15 percent of China's total energy consumption must be non-fossil energy by 2020 to meet the nation's commitment at the Copenhagen Climate Conference. Nuclear power should contribute up to six percentage points," the China daily quoted an unidentified senior official, as saying.

An analyst at Sinolink Securities, Zhang Shuai, said: "China's immediate need in cutting energy consumption makes nuclear power a crucial energy source. The advantage of nuclear power is in high stability and high utilization."

Zhang further stated that nuclear power generation costs less than other power generation.

The China Daily report, citing data from the International Atomic Energy Agency, said that nuclear power generation reportedly costs 50 dollar per megawatt-hour. China's mature nuclear power plants need less than 0.4 Yuan (6 US cents) per kilowatt-hour.

He informed that China's two nuclear power giants are buying overseas uranium mines in a speedy manner to meet demand from a huge installed nuclear power capacity, laying the foundation for a great leap of the nuclear power generation industry. (ANI)