Stephen Stapczynski reports that project financing offered by state-backed nuclear power companies from China and Russia gives them an advantage over U.S. rivals in the competition for global technology deals, U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said in Tokyo. Chinese and Russians can finance international projects in ways that are different than what American companies can do, Moniz said. He expects that they are certainly going to get a substantial market share (for a while at least). State-owned companies including China General Nuclear Power Corp. and the Russian Rosatom Corp. can rely on political and financial support to develop projects in countries seeking cleaner and cheaper power generation.
While upfront construction costs for a nuclear plant can be many times that of a gas-fired facility, nuclear plants are generally cheaper to run over their lifetime, according to a report last year from the IEA. CGN, which along with China National Nuclear Corp., developed the first domestically designed reactor in China (with the help of Westinghouse no doubt). The CGN signed a memorandum of understanding with the Kenyan government in September (2015) to build its Hualong One nuclear plant there. The company in October (2015) agreed to invest 6 billion pounds ($8.8 billion) into the Electricite de France SA Hinkley Point project in the U.K. Countries that ship nuclear technology overseas must be transparent, employ safety standards and train customers, according to Moniz. That criteria is particularly crucial in countries without long-established nuclear enterprises, he said. We all have a shared interest, Moniz said.
Any nuclear safety incident anywhere in the world is an incident for everybody engaged in nuclear power. CGN and CNNC established a joint venture to export the technology and plan to build about 30 nuclear units by 2030 in Asia and Europe. Russia 34 in 13 countries (including Vietnam).
Original working URL: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-03/chinese-nuclear-firms-seen-by-u-s-winning-deals-with-financing
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