China is likely to make nuclear power account for five percent of its total installed power-generating capacity by 2020, Tuesday's China Securities Journal quoted Zhang Guobao, head of National Energy Administration, as saying.

The newly revised share target was one percentage point higher than the four percent goal set in the 2007 edition of the nation's nuclear power development plan.

"The target adjustment will further improve the energy structure of the country and reduce significantly its reliance on coal," Gao Shixian, head of the research institute of energy under the National Development and Reform Commission, was quoted by the newspaper as saying on August 1.

It is believed that the move was a sign of China's determination to develop more recoverable energy to ease the energy shortage created by its fast expanding economy. It is also intended to improve environmental protection.

According to Xiao Zhengwen with the investment and development department of the China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group, one of the two Chinese nuclear power companies that command core technologies for nuclear power exploration, to hit the new target the nuclear power sector will have an installed capacity of more than 70 million kw in 2020.

Industry observers believed that the higher target meant nuclear power projects would expand from coastal areas to inland.

Last year China generated 62.6 billion kw/h of nuclear power, up 14.1 year on year, according to the China Electricity Council, an industry association.

China now has 11 operational nuclear generating units with a combined installed capacity of 9.08 million kw.

Nuclear plants provide 2.3 percent of China's power and the proportion is planned to rise to 16 percent by 2030.

(Xinhua News Agency August 6, 2008)