Russia may boost capacity of Chinese nuclear plant

MOSCOW, June 19 (Reuters) A Russian-built nuclear power plant in eastern China is due to start full commercial operation of its second nuclear reactor in September, and two more blocks can be built there, the building contractor said today.

Beijing plans to splurge up to 50 billion dollars on building 30 nuclear reactors by 2020, raising its capacity to 40 gigawatts (GW) - nearly enough to power Spain - or around 4 percent of China's total power capacity.

Atomstroiexport, building contractor of Russian atomic agency Rosatom, put into commercial operation the first reactor at Tianwan Nuclear Power Plant, Jiangsu province, in early June.

The 1.6 billion dollars nuclear power plant has been under construction since September 2000, and Atomstroiexport officials say the firm is keen to expand the capacity of the plant by adding two more reactors.

''To date the second block has been running at 50 percent of its capacity,'' Atomstroiexport head Sergei Shmatko was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying.

''The successful launch of the first block into operation allows us and our Chinese clients to plan the launch of the second reactor for the end of September.'' Each of the two already built reactors have capacity of 1 gigawatt.

''Our dialogue with the Chinese clients on building the third and fourth reactor has significantly accelerated since the launch of the first block,'' Shmatko said.

''By the end of the year the project of building the third and fourth blocks at Tianwan will be very clearly outlined.'' Outside China, Atomstroiexport is currently building nuclear power plants in India, Iran and Bulgaria.

REUTERS RKM VV1448