China will build 20 floating reactor platforms for the global market and an industry worth billions of dollars. (Photo : Reuters)
About 20 floating reactor platforms are being planned to be built by China in a bid to meet the demand of maritime atomic propulsion and gain foothold in a market that could be worth billions of dollars, China Daily reported on Thursday, April 21.
According to eworldship, a Shanghai-based maritime industry information provider, the final assembly for the country's first-ever floating nuclear plant is about to start in Huludao, a coastal city in Liaoning Province, which will be built by Bohai Shipbuilding Heavy Industry Co. Ltd., a unit of China Shipbuilding Industry Corp.
"CSIC is the first company with the permission to construct the floating nuclear-powered vessel, and it aims to become the strongest builder of floating nuclear platforms within five years," the report quoted Wu Zhong, general manager of CSIC Asset Management Co. Ltd., as saying during an expert review held this week.
According to Zhu Hanchao, deputy chief engineer of the CSIC 719 Research Institute, the pilot project has an average cost of about 3 billion yuan ($463 million), which can generate sales of 22.6 billion yuan in 40 years, the life span of the vessel. He added that as the company goes into mass production of the platforms, the cost could go lower.
In 2014, the CSIC 719 was set up to develop a maritime nuclear power platform and core technologies in the field.
The National Development and Reform Commission, the country's top economic regulator, approved the shipbuilder's proposal to start research for a demonstration project of the platform last year.
Earlier this year, a strategic cooperation agreement was signed by China General Nuclear Power Group signed and CSIC to develop a reactor design, the 200-megawatt ACPR50S for the offshore nuclear power platform.
Currently working on the preliminary design for ACPR50S, CGN is expected to start construction in 2017 and be commissioned by 2020.
CGN said that the floating nuclear power plant can be equipped inside a section of the vessel. The plant is often used to supply stable electricity to remote areas, as well as to large industrial facilities such as offshore oilfield exploration rigs and seawater desalination plants.
"The project has a wide range of civilian applications in providing safe and stable energy for maritime resources exploration and development," CGN said.
Wu Zhong said that the nuclear-powered equipment industry is expected to reach 50 billion yuan per year in the Bohai Bay. Wu is expecting that the offshore oil drilling demand will keep growing in the next five years with a market value of 100 billion yuan.
