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China orders 4 Westinghouse AP1000s |
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Westinghouse has won a contract to build 4 of its new AP1000 reactors in China in a deal worth worth about £4.1billion. The plants a pair of which are to be built at Sanmen in Zhejiang province, and Yangjiang in Guangdong are expected to connected to the grid by 2013.
Westinghouse which was formally a subsidiary of BNFL but now owned by Toshiba, won the contract despite fierce competition from Areva and Russia's Atomstroiexport. The deal will create more than 5,000 jobs in the United States but the key to Westinghouse’s securing the deal was the agreement to transfer of technology from the firm to China which will enable China to build similar units itself in future.
The order is expected to be part of a rapid expansion in the amount of nuclear generated electricity in China. The country is increasingly worried about the rapid increase in electricity demand and the increasing reliance on fossil fuels at a time when there is increasing global consensus on the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. China sees nuclear as a key means to meet demand without increasing its greenhouse gas emissions.
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