China ups nuclear power

The Shaw Group, in partnership with Westinghouse Electric Company, has signed contracts to provide four AP1000 nuclear power plants in China.

The contracts were signed with State Nuclear Power Technology Company of China (SNPTC), Sanmen Nuclear Power, Shandong Nuclear Power and China National Technical Import & Export Corporation (CNTIC).

Shaw, which already announced the addition of $700m to the program, will provide engineering, procurement, commissioning, information management and project management services.

The four plants will be constructed in pairs on China’s east coast at Sanmen in the province of Zhejiang and Haiyang in Shandong province.

Construction is expected to start in 2009, with the first plant at Sanmen scheduled to begin operating in late 2013 and the rest of the plants in 2014 and 2015.