Digital is the word for Nuclear power in China

TOKYO: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation and consortium partner China Techenergy Corporation Ltd. have jointly won an order for digital instrumentation and control systems (digital I&C systems) to be used at two 1,000 MW nuclear power plants, which will be constructed by China Guangdong Nuclear Power Holding Corporation Ltd. (CGNPC). The consortium order is worth approximately 10 billion yen.

A press release tells that the installed capacity of nuclear power plants in China is expected to increase from the current capacity of 9,000 MW to 60,000 MW by 2020, and up to 160,000 MW by 2030. Plans call for more than 50 new nuclear power plants to be constructed.

CGNPC is a electric power company that owns 4 nuclear power plants in operation and 10 plants under construction out of the 30 plants currently in operation or under construction in China. It plans to build approximately 20 CPR1000-type1 plants within the next decade.

In July 2007, Mitsubishi Electric received an order for six digital I&C systems for CPR1000-type nuclear power plants from China Nuclear Power Engineering Corporation Ltd. (CNPEC), an engineering subsidiary of CGNPC. At that time, Mitsubishi Electric and CTEC proposed the digital I&C solution based on the system applied in advanced nuclear power plants in Japan. The order was the first I&C system developed by a Japanese enterprise for Chinese nuclear power plants.

Following on from previous orders, this latest order means that Mitsubishi Electric’s digital I&C system has now been adopted in eight out of 10 CPR1000-type nuclear power plants under construction in China; and it raises the possibility that the system will continue to be applied as a standard in CPR1000-type nuclear power plants yet to be built.

Mitsubishi Electric says it has been strengthening and expanding its nuclear power business in areas outside Japan including China. The company is striving to further expand its digital I&C system business even for other types of nuclear power plants in cooperation with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd., Mitsubishi Corporation, and CTEC.