According to the reporter of "Daily Economic News", this move will open a new model of Sino-French cooperation, and it is the first time to jointly develop a nuclear power project in a third country.
This time, President Xi Jinping's visit to Europe has been pushing China's nuclear power to "go global" for two consecutive days. Earlier, when President Xi Jinping met with British Prime Minister David Cameron, he proposed to build a "flagship project" with strong demonstration in the fields of nuclear power and other fields.
Talking about nuclear power with European leaders
Not long ago, the 3rd Nuclear Security Summit came to an end in The Hague, the Netherlands, and President Xi Jinping's visit to Europe this time has also attracted the attention of China's nuclear power "going out".
At the Nuclear Security Summit, President Xi Jinping's explanation of China's "Nuclear Security Concept" was impressive. On the afternoon of the 26th local time in France, China and France signed an industrial cooperation agreement on a new nuclear power project in the UK. This move will open a new model of Sino-French cooperation, and it is the first time to jointly develop a nuclear power project in a third country.
According to the signed agreement, CGNPC will participate in the development and construction of EDF's proposed new nuclear power project in the UK through equity participation.
According to the Southern Metropolis Daily, China and France will strengthen cooperation in the field of nuclear power technology research and development, strengthen cooperation in nuclear power project design and equipment procurement, and strengthen the operation of nuclear power plants in operation under the global partnership agreement and the implementation agreement of the memorandum of understanding signed earlier. The cooperation with maintenance will further improve the capabilities and performance of both parties in nuclear power engineering design and power plant design, construction, procurement and operation management.
During the previous Dutch Nuclear Security Summit, on the 25th local time, Xi Jinping met with British Prime Minister David Cameron. Xi Jinping said that the two sides should build exemplary "flagship projects" in the fields of nuclear power, high-speed rail, high technology, and finance, deepen exchanges and cooperation in education, science and technology, and media, and facilitate personnel exchanges.
For two consecutive days, China's contacts with Britain and France on the development of nuclear power have attracted wide attention, taking an important step for China's nuclear power to "go global".
In fact, since the second half of 2013, Chinese nuclear power companies have made significant progress in the development of the UK, Romania, Pakistan, Argentina and other countries, and obtained multiple nuclear power project opportunities. British Chancellor of the Exchequer Osborne said during his visit to China that he is full of confidence in the prospect of China General Nuclear Power's participation in the cooperation of nuclear power projects in the United Kingdom.
Earlier, at the 2013 Central Economic Work Conference, President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang both mentioned that nuclear power and high-speed rail should be promoted and implemented as important export projects.
During his three state visits last year and the annual meeting between Chinese and British Prime Ministers in Beijing in early December, Li Keqiang personally promoted Chinese brands such as nuclear power, and witnessed the signing of a letter of intent on nuclear power project cooperation between CGNPC and the Romanian State Nuclear Power Corporation.
Nuclear "going out" is all set
Nuclear energy "going out" is an inevitable choice. As a clean energy, nuclear energy has been widely recognized and utilized around the world.
At present, nuclear power accounts for nearly 17% of the world's total installed power capacity and about 12% of global power generation. At present, China's nuclear power installed capacity accounts for less than 2%, so there is a lot of room for development.
According to the forecast of the International Atomic Energy Agency, in the next 10 years, about 60 to 70 million-kilowatt nuclear power plants will start construction around the world except China. The United States, Russia, France, Japan, South Korea and other major nuclear power countries have aimed at the international market one after another, taking nuclear power export as a national strategy to drive domestic technological progress and industrial upgrading.
During the "two sessions" of the country this year, the proposal "Accelerate the promotion of "Hualong No. 1" to go global and realize the "powerful country dream" of nuclear power" jointly submitted by 11 members of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference pointed out that it is necessary to push China's nuclear power to go abroad. In addition, promoting nuclear power and other technical equipment to go abroad was written into this year's government work report for the first time.
Wang Ji, chairman of Dongfang Electric Group, among the 11 members of the CPPCC mentioned above, believes that China's nuclear power equipment is in a critical period when its capabilities of "climbing up the slope" and "going out" are mature. The nuclear power equipment manufacturing enterprises will face a decline in technology research and development, capacity building and the cultivation and stability of the talent team, and the newly formed localization process will be stagnant.
Bao Yunqiao, vice chairman of the China Energy Research Association and former director of the Academic Committee of the China Nuclear Industry Economic Research Center, also put forward a similar view in an interview with the "Daily Economic News" reporter. He believes that due to the stagnation of domestic nuclear power construction, it is likely to cause my country's nuclear power Waste of construction resources. "Don't prepare now. If the entire nuclear power industry chain breaks down, there will be dangers later."
He Yu, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and chairman of China General Nuclear Power Group, believes that in the face of the vast global nuclear power market, China's nuclear power "going out" has both intrinsic motivation and practical capabilities. After 30 years of development, China's nuclear power industry has improved by leaps and bounds in scale and capacity of the entire industry chain, and has formed comparative advantages in the fields of engineering construction, production and operation, and has attracted the attention of the international market.
