China is churning out nuclear power plants: The West is amazed by the timing and price

Western countries need to follow the example of China if they want to fulfill their plan and triple their capacity within 25 years. Russian experts note that Rosatom is also building quickly.

"China is building nuclear reactors faster and cheaper than the rest of the world. Western countries should follow China's example if they want to triple nuclear capacity by 2050 (COP28 target)," Bloomberg reporter Stephen Stapzhinsky writes in X.

Now China ranks third in terms of nuclear power plant capacity. Its 61 GW of reactors are inferior to 95 GW in the USA and 63 GW in France. Beijing plans to increase the capacity of nuclear power plants to 200 GW by 2040, and to 400-500 GW by 2050.

They are not lagging behind the desire to rapidly increase the nuclear fleet in the USA. Donald Trump's decree on the development of nuclear energy in the United States states that by 2050 the United States plans to increase the capacity of nuclear power plants four times — up to 400 GW. And by 2030, 10 reactors of nuclear power plants should already be built.

Stephen Stapzhinsky notes at the same time that about 30 reactors are being built in China at once, and in April a $28 billion plan was approved for the construction of 10 more reactors. This is an extremely low price.

A Bloomberg reporter gives an example that the third reactor of the Vogtle nuclear power plant in the USA was built in 10 years and 1 kW of installed capacity cost $ 15 thousand. In China, its cost is $ 2.5 thousand — almost seven times cheaper. At the same time, local companies meet deadlines of five years.

Alexander Uvarov, Director of AtomInfo Center, notes that China is really building quickly and cheaply.

"But there is one caveat — we are talking about internal deadlines and prices. Chinese nuclear scientists do not have much experience in foreign projects for the construction of nuclear power plants, in fact, they built only in Pakistan. But from the data of negotiations between Chinese corporations and other potential customers that have become known, it can be seen that when entering foreign markets, the cost of Chinese projects increases sharply," the expert says. — So, in 2022, the Chinese corporation CNNC discussed a project to build one nuclear power unit with a capacity of 1.1 GW for $ 8 billion, and this is an incomplete cost of the project. Accordingly, at such rates, ten blocks will cost at least $ 80 billion, not $ 28 billion."

It is absolutely pointless for Rosatom to participate in a competition with anyone at domestic prices, since living conditions in different countries are different, Alexander Uvarov notes.

"But in terms of construction time, Rosatom's goals are about the same as those of our Chinese colleagues," adds the director of the AtomInfo Center.