How China Promotes Nuclear Power "Going Out"

China is a latecomer in the field of nuclear power. Over the years, the global nuclear power market has still been monopolized by a few countries such as Russia, France, the United States, Japan, Canada and South Korea. However, this latecomer in China is trying to introduce nuclear power at the mouth, which means that China must face them directly. competition. According to the current pattern of nuclear power in the world, it is now the best opportunity for China to develop and export nuclear power. This has become the consensus of the domestic industry.

Nuclear power technology is an important area for big countries to expand their international markets, expand their technological competitive advantages, and expand their geopolitical and economic influence. In terms of the development and use of nuclear energy, the United States is not only dealing with climate change, it is also based on the consideration of maintaining the leading edge of nuclear technology, while Russia is expanding its international market and influence with limited domestic market. China hopes to join the club of the world’s nuclear power countries at an early date. As one of the most growing nuclear power markets in the world, China has many years of nuclear power plant operation experience and mature nuclear technology, but to enter the international market, destined to pay more unimaginable hardships.

Difficulty is certain, but China still has achieved certain achievements: Until last year, the achievements China’s nuclear power has achieved in “going global” include: China Nuclear Power’s construction of Pakistan’s Karachi nuclear power plant No. 2 and 3 started construction; Chernavad nuclear power plant units 3, 4 intention. In June 2014, the British government made it clear that Chinese companies are welcome to invest and participate in the Hinckley Point project and to gradually participate in the UK's new nuclear power project more extensively, including taking the lead in the development of other nuclear power plant sites in the UK and meeting the stringent requirements of the British independent nuclear regulatory agency. Under the conditions, China's reactor technology will be deployed in the UK.

Russia is a world-class nuclear power giant whose history of nuclear industry has been more than half a century. Kirilenko, general manager of Russia's National Atomic Energy Group ("ROSATOM"), said recently that Russia's accumulated orders this year are expected to exceed 100 billion U.S. dollars and realize an average annual income of 5 billion U.S. dollars. It plans to achieve revenue of 8.5 billion U.S. dollars by 2015. ROSATOM's strength is considered to exceed that of world-class nuclear power companies including Areva and the American Westinghouse. Russia has the largest number of foreign projects in the world. Russia is currently constructing a nuclear power project with 21 foreign units and 9 domestic units, which is more than the sum of the two major nuclear power giants (China National Nuclear and China Guangdong Nuclear Power).

In the global nuclear power market, former Russian President Medvedev once stated in 2009 that Russia is expected to occupy a quarter of the market. Russia has now achieved this goal. The main partners of the country include China, Belarus, Turkey, Vietnam, Jordan, Bangladesh, and at least 12 other countries. They are also actively exploring new markets in Latin America, Africa, and Europe.

China's nuclear power is not as good as Russia. Even compared to its own Asian neighbor Korea, China still has a big gap. South Korea is the one who came from behind. In 2009, South Korea defeated several old nuclear power exporters including the United States and won orders for nuclear power plants worth US$20 billion from the United Arab Emirates. With the calculation of the cost of post-operation and maintenance of nuclear power plants, the total value of the agreement is as much as US$40 billion. South Korea is moving into other markets that intend to develop nuclear power countries and plans to occupy one fifth of the world's nuclear power market by 2030. The remaining market share is occupied by several countries such as the United States, France, Japan and Canada.

Nuclear power countries mainly adopt two distinct modes in the development of nuclear power. Russia is the most typical country adopting the traditional vertical "big unification" model. This model is a bundle of three arrows: nuclear power technology companies, nuclear power engineering companies and nuclear power owners, that is, there is only one super nuclear power group in the country. Its advantage is that by concentrating power in the short term to achieve the desired purpose. Another mode is the "split management" mode. The most typical use of this model is the United States. This model involves separating nuclear power technology companies, nuclear power engineering companies, and nuclear power plant owners as a cake. They are independent and form a market-oriented competition. Once they decided to export nuclear power to other countries, the three were re-integrated and formed into a single-handed, direct line to those international markets where they exported.

Practice has shown that these two completely different models have enabled Russia and the United States to achieve their desired success. For example, the United States has entered and continues to tap into the nuclear power market in China, and on this basis has entered the market for more countries that need nuclear power plants. The model adopted by China in the development of nuclear power is neither the "great unification" model nor the "distribution management" model, but a self-contained "Chinese characteristics" model: the three major nuclear power companies (China Nuclear, China General Nuclear and National Nuclear Power) ) All have a relatively complete system of their own, which has led to a situation where "no one cares for whom." This is a stumbling block to China's move from a nuclear power to a nuclear power.

Chinese nuclear power companies have realized the importance of "going global" and working together. China National Nuclear Corporation and China General Nuclear Power Corp. have merged their two nuclear power technologies into one—Hualong No. 1—to jointly promote overseas sales. What kind of development model does China's nuclear power need? Everyone is still thinking about this issue.