Shandong gets permit to build nuclear plant

Shandong province has been granted a permit to build a nuclear plant.

The project, located in Shidao Bay, Weihai City, has been granted a permit from the National Nuclear Safety Administration, according to a statement posted on the website of the Ministry of Environmental Protection.

The plant will be jointly developed and operated by China Huaneng Group, China Nuclear Engineering Corp and Tsinghua University, with an investment ratio of 47.5 percent, 32.5 percent and 20 percent, respectively.

A set of high temperature gas-cooled nuclear power reactors will be built in the first phase with an investment of 3 billion yuan ($478 million).

In the second phase, the plant will house AP1000 reactors with third-generation technology.

Total capacity is expected to reach 9 million kilowatts with a total investment of 150 billion yuan in 20 years.

This is the second nuclear plant in Shandong province. The first one is located in Haiyang.

China suspended nuclear plant construction after Japan's Fukushima nuclear disaster last year, but the government said in late October that construction of plants could resume.

Only a small number of nuclear plants will be launched by 2015 and all of them will be in coastal sites.