Published on July 13, 2019.
As a continuation of Toyohito Matsuoka’s essay in the monthly magazine WiLL, this article examines how China’s nuclear power business is being advanced as a state-run enterprise centered on CNNC, CGN, and SPIC.
Unlike Japan’s system centered on private electric power companies, China has nationally integrated technological development, design, construction, and equipment manufacturing, powerfully promoting nuclear plant construction and export strategy.

July 13, 2019.
It is currently constructing the Haiyang Nuclear Power Plant in Shandong Province, with two AP1000 units.
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one can never understand the truth of matters,
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The following is a continuation of the previous chapter.
Japan’s nuclear power operators are ten private electric power companies.
In 1960, the Japan Atomic Power Company began construction of the Tokai Nuclear Power Plant, and it began operation in 1965.
Subsequently, nine major electric power companies, including Kansai Electric Power and Tokyo Electric Power, joined, and Electric Power Development is also constructing the Ōma Nuclear Power Plant.
On the other hand, construction and maintenance work, including technological development for nuclear power generation, plant design, equipment manufacturing, and installation, is handled by nuclear plant manufacturers such as Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Hitachi, and Toshiba.
In contrast, China’s nuclear power business differs greatly from Japan’s system in that ① it is a state-run enterprise, ② it has as its parent body the Ministry of Nuclear Industry, or the Ministry of Atomic Energy, which handles the military sector, and ③ operators themselves hold technological development, design, and construction divisions within their organizations and play a central role in construction work as well.
Development of nuclear weapons technology began in 1955.
In 1964, China succeeded in conducting a nuclear test, but its introduction of nuclear power generation was delayed.
China’s first nuclear power plant was the Qinshan Phase I Nuclear Power Plant in Zhejiang Province, a pressurized water reactor, CNP300 type, with an output of 310,000 kW, which first reached criticality in 1991.
China, promoted under government leadership.
China has three nuclear power operators: China National Nuclear Corporation, or CNNC, which is a directly managed enterprise of the government’s nuclear energy sector; China General Nuclear Power Group, or CGN, a state-run enterprise launched in Guangdong Province based on French technology; and State Power Investment Corporation, or SPIC, a state-run company established by the government’s electric power sector.
The predecessor of CNNC was China National Nuclear Corporation, which was separated and made independent from the Ministry of Nuclear Industry in 1989 as the operator of the Qinshan Phase I Nuclear Power Plant, whose construction the Ministry of Nuclear Industry began in 1985.
Qinshan Phase I Nuclear Power Plant began commercial operation in 1994 with overseas support from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and others.
The company was reorganized in 1999 as China National Nuclear Corporation, or CNNC, and as the central enterprise in the nuclear power field, including fuel supply, it currently operates 18 reactors with a total capacity of 15.4 million kW.
The predecessor of CGN was China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group, established in 1994 as the operator of Units 1 and 2 of the Guangdong Daya Bay Nuclear Power Plant, built near Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, by introducing French-made pressurized water reactors, or PWRs, M310, 984,000 kW × 2 units, construction started in 1987 and commercial operation began in 1994.
In 2013, the company changed its name to China General Nuclear Power Group, or CGN, and it is now China’s largest nuclear power operator, operating 20 reactors with a total capacity of 21.467 million kW.
SPIC was created in 2015 through the management integration of China Power Investment Corporation, or CPI, which inherited the stake that the national electric power department, then the Ministry of Water Resources and Electric Power, had invested in Qinshan Phase I Nuclear Power Plant, 10 percent, at the time of the separation of power generation and transmission in 2002, and State Nuclear Power Technology Corporation, or SNPTC, an engineering company established by the Chinese government in 2007 to introduce AP1000 technology from the United States.
SPIC is China’s fifth-largest power generation company, holding total power generation capacity of 126.13 million kW, centered on coal-fired thermal power.
Its nuclear power holdings are limited to 4.48 million kW, including stakes in the Hongyanhe Nuclear Power Plant in Liaoning Province, 45 percent investment, but it is currently constructing the Haiyang Nuclear Power Plant in Shandong Province, with two AP1000 units.
Furthermore, China’s nuclear power operators have a system in which equipment design and construction divisions are held within their organizations.
In the case of CNNC, plant design and engineering are handled by China Nuclear Power Engineering Co. and the Nuclear Power Institute of China, both under its umbrella.
CGN also has China Nuclear Power Engineering Co. under its umbrella and is working on technological development that has absorbed French technology.
Meanwhile, SPIC has SNPTC and the Shanghai Nuclear Engineering Research and Design Institute under its umbrella.
Construction work has been centered on China Nuclear Engineering & Construction Corporation, or CNEC, which had become independent from CNNC, but in January 2018, the company was once again integrated into CNNC, strengthening the system.
Major equipment is manufactured by five major manufacturers, Shanghai Electric Group, Dongfang Electric Corporation, Harbin Electric Corporation, China First Heavy Industries, and China Second Heavy Industries, among others, based on designs by the nuclear power companies.
This article continues.