The State Council, China's Cabinet, recently approved construction of the Sanmen Nuclear Power Plant in east China's Zhejiang Province.

The Sanmen Nuclear Power Plant, which is to cover 7.4 million sq m in sparsely populated Maotou Hill with sea on three sides, will be the second nuclear plant in Zhejiang Province, one of the country's economic powerhouses on China's eastern coast.

The region was twice chosen by the China Nuclear Industry Group and Zhejiang Provincial Government as an ideal location for a nuclear plant in a joint document submitted to the State Council for approval in 1983 and in 2000 respectively.

The nuke plant will be jointly developed by the China Nuclear Industry Group and Zhejiang Provincial Government. It will have six 1-million-kw generating units. Upon completion, the nuke plant will have a combined installed capacity of 12 million kw.

For the first-phase construction, which will cost 25 billion yuan (about 3 billion US dollars), two 1-million-kw pressurized water reactors will be installed.

Information from the Sanmen County Government said that they had finished 90 percent of the ground leveling task for the construction of the first-phase of the project.

The Sanmen Nuclear Power Plant will put into operation in 2010. And the electricity generated by the new plant will be sent to east China power grid.

Zhejiang has become one of the power-deficient regions in east China. As power supply is available for four days per week, many businesses in the province have been operating below capacity.

To make the power ends meet, many local enterprises have bought diesel-fueled generators. It is estimated that diesel engines with a combined capacity of 7.2 million kw are used for power generation throughout the province.

There were four nuclear power plants in China by May 2004. They are the Qinshan Nuclear Power Plant, located in Haiyan County of Zhejiang Province, Daya Bay Nuclear Power Plant and Ling'ao Nuclear Power Plant in Guangdong Province, and Tianwan Nuclear Power Plant that is being built in Lianyungang City of eastern Jiangsu Province.

Statistics show that the country's electricity demand increased by about 16 percent in the first six months of this year over the same period last year, with 757,000 power brownouts imposed.