Source:www.21jingji.com

On January 28, the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) of the No.5 unit of China National Nuclear Corporation's Fuqing nuclear power plant was successfully installed on Jan 28, using Hualong One technology, as the global first (nuclear power technology of pressurized water) reactor. It is reported to be the first third-generation pressure vessel of the nuclear power project that China completely has independent intellectual property rights, and compared with the second-generation improved nuclear power unit, manufacturing standards of pressure vessel for "Hualong One" demonstration project has been updated to RCCM - 2007, with design life prolong from 40 years to 60 years. 

As the first "Hualong One" demonstration project, the successful construction of the nuclear power plant means not only the practice of the technical route itself but also the business card of China's nuclear power to "go to sea".

Recently, on the first session of Nuclear Power Investment Forum held in Beijing, as Xu Yuming, secretary-general of CNEA, said that now, it is an important historical opportunity for China's nuclear energy development, with both powerful capability of nuclear power construction and a large space for development.

We can often see great opportunities with nuclear power globally, especially in Africa and southeast Asia.

In fact, as China's nuclear technology continues to grow, some private capital has begun to lay out its investment in such sector. In addition to Ocean Nuclear founded last October, domestic investment banks have also begun to study the development potential of this asset.

"In fact, currently, high quality assets are scarce, not to mention the energy sector," a head of investment bank told the reporter of the 21st Century Business Herald, "The future nuclear power investment will be very promising if its rate of return can maintain 8% in the process of actual operation."

There are totally 447 nuclear reactors all over the world at the present, consisting of those under construction in addtion to 300 available ones most of which were built up during the period between 1968 and 1980, "In the next decade, the demand for renovation, upgrade and lifetime extension will also provide great opportunity, which will result in capital convergence." Qiu Zhen, chairman of Ocean Nuclear, said.

Opportunity for Chinese nuclear power 

From a global perspective, China has overtaken Japan to become a country with third-largest nuclear power generating capacity, only next to the United States and France, but domestically, nuclear power still shares a very small proportion in overall Chinese power generation structure.

As of last month, China has 37 units in operation and 19 units under construction, spreading over eight provinces along the southeastern coast of China. The gross generation in 2017 is 247.4 billion KWH, increasing by 17% than that of 2016 but only accounting for 4% of national generating capacity according to statistics. 

It is a remarkable fact that, compared with thermal power, wind power and photovoltaic power, average utilization time is 6,987 hours, where utilization time of 13 units exceeds 7,400 hours, up to 8,706 hours at most. "Basically, it's more than 95 percent of the working time, it's generating electricity, and its use ratio is much higher than that of thermal power, wind power and photovoltaic power.” said Xu Yuming.

From the perspective of construction, Chinese nuclear power units under construction have been ranked as the first in the world for five consecutive years. The development of nuclear power has promoted industrial upgrade and has fostered a number of enterprises at the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain as well. "So to speak, China has set up a self-contained complete nuclear power industry system, and its degree of autonomy and localization is also increasing." "Xu Yuming said.

From the perspective of development potential, continuous economic development must need constant increase of power supply capacity, on the basis of “13th five-year plan for electric power development”, total electricity consumption in 2020 is expected to be 6.8-7.2 trillion KWH, with annual average increase by 3.6% to 4.8%, at the appointed time, nuclear power capacity will reach 58 million kilowatts, and its scale under construction will be more than 30 million kilowatts.

In the long term, Xu Mingyu has predicted that the scale of installation capacity of China's nuclear power will be double by 2030, quadruple up to 150 GW by 2050, and its generating capacity will account for nearly 11% of the global average value. At the same time, in addition to the current conventional large-scale nuclear power generation units, the small advanced modular multi-purpose reactor (" small reactor " for short) will also become one of the future development directions.

At present, the small reactor project actively promoted within the worldwide scope is under the charge of British government, however in spite of ACP100 design, the domestic standard for small reactors is still in the  stage of research and discussion, "The advantages of small reactors are very prominent, flexible, capable to offer various demand for power and heating generation, but its disadvantages are the cost construction and operation is relatively higher." said Xu Yuming.

However, according to Yang Hanxin, chief scientist of Ocean Nuclear, the small reactor also has economical efficiency that the conventional reactor doesn’t have. "Unlike conventional reactor, the small reactor under construction can start generating  electricity simultaneously, and its less upfront investment is much less than that of conventional reactor, which can bring cash flow under construction at the same time, convenient for further financing of enterprises, so as to reduce overall cost." He said.

Global opportunities and challenges

After the Fukushima nuclear accident, there has been an unprecedented global debate over whether to develop nuclear power.

Some countries and regions represented by Germany have announced to completely abandon nuclear power, and other countries such as Britain and France, have still maintained a positive attitude toward nuclear power, but more countries such as South Korea and Japan keep were keeping "ambiguous" attitudes toward nuclear power.

"From the view of region, in addition to developed countries, some countries in Africa and south-east Asia are the major target market for China’s nuclear power project to go to sea." Francois Morin told reporters, "but Chinese enterprises have been undervaluing the demand of market in these areas, especially in southeast Asia for a long time."

He has predicted that from 2016 to 2040, in addition to China, the areas with the highest growth of nuclear power will be India and southeast Asia and other regions, at an average growth of more than 100%. Due to relatively weak nuclear power technology and infrastructure, the potential of nuclear power growth in these areas is enlarged.

In addition to newly constructed projects, upgrade and life extension for the existing projects have become a huge business opportunity. As mentioned above, there are globally 300 nuclear power plants are requiring modification at the expiry of design life to enhance level of safety and prolong service life, which also provides a strong market demand space.

However, it is the safety of nuclear power that limits sustainable development of the global nuclear power industry and reduces economical efficiency of nuclear power. After the accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, the global mainstream and mature second-generation nuclear power technology was forced to be comprehensively upgraded, as a result, not only was its capability to cope with natural disasters greatly promoted but also was its safeguard procedures against terrorist attack strengthened.

Higher standards have pushed nuclear power technologies into a new generation -- namely the third generation, one of which is China's homegrown "Huayong One" -- being gradually built into construction. At present, in addition to the domestic projects in Fuqing and Port of Fangcheng, two units in Pakistan's Karachi project are also under construction.

In 2015, "Hualong One" technology has began to be submitted to GDA for review and will pass as early as possible in 2020 when "Hualong One" after passing through the world's most stringent route review of nuclear power technology will set sail more smoothly.   

Safer nuclear technology has reduced the safety concerns of both the government and the public, but on the other hand, it required more investment, affecting economical efficiency of nuclear power. In addition, the delay of implementation and practice of the third-generation nuclear power technology around the world has raised the cost of construction. At present, safety issue is the risk for exporting nuclear power.

"The construction of the third generation has not yet mature, the fourth generation is coming out, therefore safety requirements and standards are continuously improving, and the cost will also rise, which is also the important factors affecting economical efficiency of development of the future nuclear power." An analyst observing the nuclear industry told reporters.

(editor: zhang xing)

Under the background of the proposal of "One Belt And One Road", China has accelerated its development in nuclear power sector. According to prediction of China National Nuclear Corporation, the nuclear power cooperation of countries along the "Belt and road" will directly lever the market scale of 3 trillion yuan of output value.

According to the report of the China Nuclear Energy Industry Association, China is now a major nuclear power country in the world. China’s nuclear power installed capacity ranks fourth in the world, its power generation exceeds that of Japan, and it has entered the world’s top three. The nuclear power unit under construction is the world’s number one for many years in a row.

"Now is the best time to export China’s nuclear power." said Wei Jianguo, the former deputy minister of Commerce Department at GNIS Nuclear Investment Forum (GNIS, Global Nuclear Investment Summit). He believes that China's nuclear technology has surpassed Japan and France and it is necessary to consider how to devote greater effort to "go out".

At present, many countries in the world need clean energy, especially the countries along the Belt and Road, which will creat great demand for clean energy, but lack of capital and technology.

On the technical side, Xu Yuming, deputy director of the Expert Committee of the China Nuclear Energy Industry Association, pointed out to the First Financial reporter: “China has built a complete nuclear power industry system—the main components of nuclear power industry chain such as research and design, equipment manufacturing, nuclear fuel supply, and nuclear power plant construction. The links are all very strong, and the level of self-determination and localization continues to increase."

However, funds are still a key factor constraining the development of nuclear energy. “Because of the huge investment, long term, and high research cost, high initial costs will cause difficulties for some projects,” said the head of the Department of Energy and Climate Change in the Asia-Pacific region.

Nuclear power "goes out" to usher in new opportunities

Although the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan has brought tremendous impact on the development of nuclear power in the world, the nuclear power industry in the United States, France, Japan, Germany and other nuclear power major countries have increased their uncertainty. For example, Germany took the lead in abandoning nuclear energy. At the end of 2017, South Korea also announced its plan to "nuclear power."

However, in the global energy structure, currently only coal, natural gas, and nuclear power can serve as stable basic power. With the transformation and upgrading of the global energy industry is imminent, compared with conventional power generation, nuclear power has become increasingly prominent in terms of safety and economy.

According to statistics, as of July 2017, in the global scope, the number of nuclear power plants under construction, planned construction and proposed construction is 59, 160 and 378 respectively. At present, 17 nuclear-free countries are building, planning and constructing nuclear power plants. In the future, the number of countries using nuclear power worldwide will increase to 32 or more.

In the United Kingdom, for example, the relevant person in charge of the Asia-Pacific Region of the London Development Promotion Agency stated that British nuclear energy accounted for 1/4 of all energy sources in 2016, and by 2035, the relevant ratio will increase to 1/3.

Mohan Munasinghe, the Nobel Peace Prize winner, has pointed out in GNIS ? Nuclear Investment Forum, energy efficiency is the first technical element to realize the sustainable development of energy, the world needs advanced technology to improve energy efficiency, and nuclear power is a very important energy technology.China can play a very important role in this regard.

Xu Yuming stated that as of November 2017, 37 units of nuclear power units have been put into commercial operation in the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong, and 19 nuclear power units are under construction. The nuclear power unit has been operating safely and stably, and has reached the international advanced level. The excellent operating performance of the nuclear power plant provides valuable experience and good demonstration.

Under the "The Belt and Road" initiave, china's nuclear power companies have already started the world journey. The most representative, such as the China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group's 6 billion pounds in construction and operation of the British nuclear power plant project in 2015.

According to a statement issued by China Guangdong Nuclear Power, the British Nuclear Regulatory Office (ONR) and the British Environmental Agency (EA) issued a joint statement declaring the completion of the first phase of “Hualong 1” in the UK’s GDA (General Design Review) and formally entered the second phase. .

The financial support in various types is urgently needed

However, Chinese companies’ nuclear power investment still faces special challenges, including the difficulty of financing due to high up-front costs and the sensitivity of the source of M&A funding in the nuclear field.

Wei Jianguo said that China's nuclear power "going out" is the most critical financial support. In the United States, France, Japan, and other countries, the loan interest rate for nuclear power companies is only 1.7%, while the loan rate for Chinese banks to “go global” companies is also about 2.2%, which indicates that the financial support for “going out” of nuclear power is demonstrated. Among them, government involvement or support is particularly important.

Excluding the capital cost factor, Wang Jin, president of the China Intercontinental Energy Consulting Institute, told reporters that private companies will be able to increase the success rate of investment in mergers and acquisitions when they invest in large-scale energy projects.

Shi Yanyu, senior vice president of sea nuclear energy, pointed out that compared with state-owned banks and some state-owned industrial funds that are closed in nuclear power projects and seek greater control, private capital can accept only 1% or less of the projects. Shares, in contrast, are more open and flexible. In addition, private enterprises tend to be more professional in their focus because of their small size. For example, they only use nuclear power projects as an incision. 

She pointed out that with the increasing demand for global energy production and financing integration, the government’s infrastructure construction budget alone cannot cover the need for financing of all new nuclear energy projects and upgrading of old equipment. Therefore, it is particularly important to provide financing tools for nuclear energy projects to fill market vacancies.

Source: China Times

"Now is the best time for China's nuclear energy to go out." On January 28, at the first GNIS Nuclear Energy Investment Forum, Wei Jianguo, former vice minister of the Ministry of Commerce and vice chairman of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges (CCIEE), said that with regard to the urgent need to solve the problem of China's nuclear power going out, financial support is "critical." This will require a large number of financial service organizations to provide them with strong financial support.

The organizer of the conference is currently the only private financial service agency in China's nuclear power field, Ocean Nuclear. Qiu Zhen, the chairman of the company, has put forward that his company, although set up very late, has already achieved many financial licenses such as life insurance and trust etc within China. The future planning of the company will not only provide support for China’s nuclear power going out, but also financial services for the global nuclear power transaction.

China's Nuclear Power Going out

Why is it the best time for China's nuclear power to go out? Wei Jianguo, through his years of experience in diplomacy, believes that at present, many countries in the world need clean energy but lack of capital and technology, especially for Africa, which has urgent demands for clean energy. He said that our nuclear technology has surpassed Japan and France and we must now consider how to further increase our efforts to go abroad.

He believes that among the countries along the current “Belt and Road”, 65 of them have 93 ports, which require us to invest in a very large number of projects, and we currently have only 130 projects.

In recent years, of course, due to the accident at Japanese Fukushima nuclear power plant, the development of international nuclear power in the world has experienced a setback, and the going out of China’s nuclear power is at initial stage and will also undergo an accumulation process. Yang Hanxin, PhD of the Department of Nuclear Energy Engineering at the University of Manchester in UK, has taken an example of the “Hualong One” going abroad, it was difficult at first, and the outside world had an accepting process. As everyone does, we are trying to pass UK Generic Design Assessment (GDA). If passed, it will be of great significance for the project to go global, as the UK GDA is the world passport. At present, although Germany has abandoned its nuclear programme, UK is definitely very supportive for construction of nuclear power plants among western countries due to the aging of previous equipment.

QIU Zhen said in his speech that only the thermal power, natural gas, and nuclear power are the stable basic power in the global energy ratio structure. This is a reality that must be faced for the time being. As petrol vehicles are gradually replaced by new energy vehicles, more urgent power demand will emerge in the market, which lays a solid foundation for China’s nuclear power going out.

Private Financial Services are Put on the Agenda

"Behind keen demand for power is the financial demand for capital-intensive basic electricity," Wei Jianguo said in his speech. The funds for the construction of nuclear power in the Belt and Road Initiative require $700 billion, therefore, the financial support is the most critical part for China's nuclear power to go abroad.

Wei Jianguo said that in the United States, France, Japan and other countries, the loan interest rate for nuclear power enterprises is only 1.7%, but our export-import banks provides 2.2% at lowest for the enterprises to "go out", which further shows that involvement of the government is particularly important for the financial support of nuclear power going abroad.

However, there is a big weakness for China's nuclear power to go out. As China's nuclear power enterprises are mostly ultra-large and state-owned, and furthermore, the financial services relating to nuclear power are generally longer-term projects requiring a huge amount of money and normally relies on large state-owned financial institutions for financial support, it easily leads to misunderstanding at abroad, which should be recognized as a very important lesson from many failure cases in recent years.

WANG Jin, president of Guohe Intercontinental Energy Consulting Institute believes that identified as a private enterprise, without extreme state ideology, Ocean Nuclear can help to relieve inexpressible worries caused by differences of national and political systems when carrying out overseas investment and M&A of large energy project, so as to improve the success rate of investment and M&A.

SHI Yanyu, senior vice president of Ocean Nuclear told China Times that regardless of strong profit capability, long and stable return cycle, the nuclear power project requires enormous investment and high cost of scientific research, and with the increasing demand for integration of industry and finance of global energy, the government infrastructure budget alone can neither cover the financing of all new nuclear energy projects nor meet the demand for upgrading old equipment. Therefore, it is particularly important to provide financing tools for nuclear energy projects to fill the market vacancy.

Experts have reached consensus at the meeting that private financial services providers would be required to provide services in the aspects of financing, investment bank, intermediaries, consulting and financial consulting, etc.

According to QIU Zhen, Ocean Nuclear has participated in some of the following tangible projects: financing for the projects of Russia state nuclear power in Egypt, Turkey and other countries; financing to be introduced by Germany for other nuclear projects, including UK; financing for South Korea nuclear power projects in the United Arab Emirates; financing for reserved section of Japanese Toshiba nuclear power business; financing for Finland to promote the French VVER project and so on.

As QIU Zhen said, Ocean Nuclear not only serves the export of Chinese nuclear power business but also focuses on the financial services demand of the major nuclear power exporters, which offers opportunities to emerging countries to enjoy clean energy supplied by nuclear power and provides clean energy support for economic development by financial means. 

In the future, in order to better serve overseas export of nuclear power, Ocean Nuclear plans to set up overseas offices in London, Dubai, Luxembourg, etc. In addition, it also plans to establish a close financial cooperation with 68 life insurance companies in China, and internationally, their partners will include: Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Kingdom Holding Co, National Investment Authority of South Africa, VTB Bank, BNP Paribas, Raiffeisenbank, Temasek Holdings, Singapor, Lloyds Bank, UK, National Investment Authority of Qatar, Qatar Islamic First Finance, Deutsche bank, the Korea Development Bank（KDB）, Danske Bank (Finland and Estonia), etc., and other similar illustrious sovereign wealth fund and international banking giants.

XU Yuming, deputy director of CNEA expert committee, said: "In overseas nuclear investment, there are very few Chinese private companies to participate, but the private companies in many other countries all over the world are active in nuclear energy field, undoubtedly, the Chinese private companies will undoubtedly help to improve the efficiency of China's nuclear power to go global." 

Editor in charge: MENG Junlian  Editor-in-chief: RAN Xudong

Source: China Economic Weekly

News from ourcecn - China Economic Weekly (reporter Xie Wei) as one of the three major power supports in the world, nuclear energy plays an important role in ensuring energy security and improving environmental quality and other aspects. However, in 2011, Japan's Fukushima nuclear accident brought a huge impact on the global nuclear power development and increased the uncertainty of the development of nuclear power industry in the US, France, Japan and Germany.

On January 28, sponsored by Ocean Nuclear, the first session of GNIS•Nuclear Energy Investment Forum was held in Beijing, where the main topic for discussion is "integration of industry and finance, international view -- smart finance facilitates global nuclear power development", focusing on prospects and opportunities of international development of nuclear power industry.

At the site, Xu Yuming, deputy director of expert committee of China Nuclear Energy Association (CNEA) said that it is an important historical opportunity now for the development of China's nuclear energy, holding not only the world's most powerful capability of nuclear power construction but also a vast space for development.

The market space of global nuclear power development is large

With the growing challenge of global climate change and the steady growth of demand for electricity, nuclear power plays an increasingly important role in the global energy transformation due to its mature technology, low carbon and high efficiency. However, Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan 2011 has cast a shadow over the development prospect of nuclear power, and various countries have begun to re-examine and adjust their nuclear energy plans.

As the world's nuclear power, France also announced to reduce the proportion of nuclear energy in its energy mix. However, because of exhaustion of oil and gas resources in north sea and the ageing of nuclear power plants day by day, the UK is active in developing nuclear power. Japan began to restart nuclear power plants in 2015, but the progress is slow. Germany was one of the first countries to give up nuclear power, and by the end of 2017, South Korea, which has been roaring ahead in nuclear power, unexpectedly announced plans to "take nuclear power off".

Asreported, 45 countries around the world are actively considering developing nuclear energy projects, such as Argentina, Belarus, Bangladesh, China, India, Finland, Britain, Russia, Romania and so on. By 2050, the world is expected to add 1, 000 GW of nuclear power installed capacity, capable to reach 25% of total gross generation.

From the view of region, in addition to developed countries, some countries in Africa and south-east Asia are the major target market of China’s nuclear power project. However, Chinese enterprises have been undervaluing the demand of market in these areas, especially in southeast Asia for a long time."

Yang Hanxin, PhD of department of nuclear energy engineering at the University of Manchester believes that at present, many countries, especially developing countries need a lot of electric power, so that their demand for development of nuclear power is quite urgent. After more than 30 years of continuous development, China has accumulated rich experience in nuclear power. Compared with other countries, China's nuclear power has advantages in technology, cost, policy and so on to “go to sea” .

China's nuclear power development is facing with important strategic opportunities

As the fastest developing country in the world, China has attracted great attention from all over the world for the development of its nuclear power.According to Xu Yuming, as of November 2017, China (excluding Taiwan) has 37 nuclear power units put into commercial operation and 19 nuclear power units under construction. 56 units are spreading over 13 nuclear power plants in 8 provinces, including Zhejiang, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Liaoning, Fujian, Guangxi, Hainan and Shandong. The total installed capacity of nuclear power units is about 36 million kilowatts, accounting for about 2% of the country's overall installed electricity capacity.

As Xu Yuming said, China’s nuclear power units under construction have been the world first for more than successive five years, where the development of nuclear power drives the development of the whole industrial chain and technology upgrades. China has built a complete supporting system of nuclear power industry -- with a very strong strength in the key links of industry chain such as research design, equipment manufacturing, nuclear fuel supply, nuclear power plant construction, etc, unceasingly enhancing its level of self-independence and localization.” He said.

At home, however, nuclear power is not a big part of the overall structure of power generation. According to the data, China's nuclear power units in operation account for only about 2% of various kinds of installed electricity capacity all over China. However, in the United States, Russia, Britain, South Korea and other major countries, the proportion of nuclear power installed units occupies more than 9%, up to 24% at most.

"I would like to personally judge that in the next ten or fifteen years, China's nuclear power development will be one of the major forces in global nuclear development." Xu Yuming has pointed out that China's nuclear power development is still in an important period of strategic opportunities. On the one hand, the ratio of nuclear power installed units and generating capacity is very low, therefore there is enough space for development. China has built a complete supporting system of nuclear power industry, whose main manufacturing capacity of nuclear power equipment is the world first and nuclear power construction capability is the first in the world, capable to meet the needs to newly build 8 units or more every year, with conditions for large-scaled development in batch. On the other hand, the green and low-carbon energy system is diverse, including renewable energy, new energy and a certain amount of fossil energy. The nuclear power is the only energy source that can replace coal on a large scale and provide reliable power for the power grid, which is an indispensable part of China's green and low-carbon energy system construction.

Xu predicts that China's nuclear power installed capacity could reach 100-120 GW (e) by 2030, and the ratio of generating capacity by nuclear power would be about 8%.

Private enterprises are aiming at the opportunities of nuclear power financial services

"The current biggest obstacle to push nuclear power is how to combine it with the whole process of green finance." said Wei Jianguo, the former deputy minister of Ministry of Commerce, CCIEE vice president .

This is also the consensus of Forum participants. In the cold winter of business, money is becoming a key driver to push nuclear power development.

Ocean Nuclear, established in November 2017, has decided to target this pain spot and become the first private enterprise to "eat crab". Qiu Zhen, chairman of Ocean Nuclear believes that in the fully new energy era, the government infrastructure budget alone can neither cover the financing of all new nuclear energy projects nor meet the demand for upgrading old equipment, therefore, it is particularly important to provide financing tools for nuclear energy projects to fill the gap in the free market.

According to introduction, Ocean Nuclear will focus on providing financial services for the nuclear power transactions and help more emerging countries to enjoy clean energy nuclear power by financial means, so as to provide energy support for economic development.

Mr Qiu said that Ocean Nuclear has already started business layout in many countries. Last November, Ocean Nuclear has established branch office in London and launched a global nuclear power investment programme, negotiating on a small reactor project in the UK. And Ocean Nuclear will also open branches in France, South Africa and South Korea.

Source:CIEN

On January 28, GNIS• Nuclear Energy Forum, sponsored by one of the core WNA members, financial facilitator of global nuclear energy - Ocean Nuclear, successfully ended in Beijing, where many nuclear experts, scholars and industrial celebrities from 28 countries around the world have entered into intensive dialogue on the concept of "innovation, coordination, green, openness and sharing".

Ocean Nuclear is playing a positive role in the export process of China's nuclear energy industry. Firstly, with excellent international team and sight, Ocean Nuclear is treading on the heels of development trend of the worldwide nuclear energy industry, e.g.,its strong capability of screening and frequent participation in the investment project of overseas nuclear energy as well as proactive attitude have greatly accelerated the speed of China's nuclear energy to go out. Secondly, identified as a confident minority - it is more flexible that the youngest WNA Chinese private capital participator in the global nuclear energy cooperation helps China to remove its previous label of national level or political complexion in former participation in international nuclear energy, and most importantly, Ocean Nuclear can more efficiently join and achieve the competition in international nuclear power cause. The most importantly, Ocean Nuclear focuses solely on nuclear energy financial service business and has high degree of specialization, dedicating itself to injecting the key blood - fund in addition to its operation into the life community to develop global energy industry.

It is understood that Ocean Nuclear has implemented its financial business in export of global nuclear power around the world. Setting out from London, they has laid finance out on the basis of five core nuclear powers namely China, Britain, France, Russia, South Korea, to provide financial solutions for global energy companies in connection with capital market, and they have furthest initiated a system that capital drives development and upgrade of international energy industry, so as to help more countries around the world to enjoy clean energy by using more market-oriented financial plan.

Qiu Zhen, chairman of Ocean Nuclear, has full confidence in the international energy market, while actively seeking the right way together with the attendant insiders for how Chinese private energy companies can go out successfully and reach a broader international energy cooperation. (reported by Sun Yang)

Source:www.ce.cn

At present, the transformation and upgrading of the global energy industry are imminent. Compared with conventional power generation, the advantages of nuclear power in terms of safety and economy are increasingly prominent, providing a broad market space for the development of nuclear energy. At the first GNIS- Nuclear Investment Forum (GNIS, Global Nuclear Investment Summit) sponsored by Ocean Nuclear recently, industry insiders believe that nuclear power development is ushering in an unprecedented historical opportunity. In the future, China will become one of the countries with the fastest growing nuclear power, and the “Belt and Road” strategic background. Next, China is expected to flex its muscles in the field of nuclear power, while private enterprises will play an important complementary role in promoting China’s nuclear power to go global.

In the global energy structure, currently only coal, natural gas and nuclear power can serve as stable basic power. As gasoline cars are gradually replaced by new energy vehicles, more electricity will be generated. Behind the massive electricity demand is the financial demand for capital-intensive basic electricity.

According to the data, as of July 2017, there are respectively 59, 160 and 378 nuclear power units under construction, planned or proposed to be constructed all over the world. At present, 17 nuclear-free countries are constructing, planning to constructe nuclear power plants. In the future, the number of countries using nuclear power in the world will increase to 32 or more.

With the continuous advancement of localization of nuclear power materials and equipment by domestic enterprises and policies, China has now formed a relatively complete autonomous nuclear power industrial system and has become the country with the largest production capacity of nuclear power units in the world. The independent research and development of nuclear power technology based on “Hualong I” has become a China’s business card that China actively promotes overseas. The market for nuclear power going out in the future will be vast. According to CNNC’s prediction, nuclear power cooperation among countries along the “Belt and Road”initiative will directly instigate a market with a scale of 3 trillion RMB.

However, under the severe winter season of trade, the adequacy of funds is becoming a key element in promoting the development of nuclear energy. To achieve industrial upgrading and sustainable development, the nuclear energy industry must use more financial resources. Yanyu Shi, senior vice president of Ocean Energy, said that nuclear power projects have strong profitability and long-term stable return periods, but they have huge investments and high scientific research costs. With the increasing demand for global energy production and financing, they rely solely on government infrastructure construction budgets. The need to cover the financing of all new nuclear energy projects and upgrading of old equipment cannot be covered. Therefore, it is particularly important to provide financing tools for nuclear energy projects to fill the gaps in the free market.

For a long time, due to high threshold of the nuclear power industry, almost no domestic private capital has participated in oversea nuclear power investment. But in fact, compared with the giant "national team", participation of the private enterprises in overseas nuclear projects will be more flexible and efficient. Following behind CGNPC, CNNC and SNPTC, Ocean Nuclear is the fourth Chinese enterprise which has joined WNA. And Qiu Zhen, chairman of Ocean Nuclear, believes that as a private enterprise, the advantage of Ocean Nuclear lies in deep?cooperation with a wide range of global financial institutions and multilateral institutions so as to achieve strong financing capability, which will facilitate Ocean Nuclear to meet the financing needs of nuclear power projects in different propulsion phases and fully guarantee the financial support for nuclear energy projects at all stages.

"In oversea nuclear investment in nuclear power, there are very few Chinese private companies to participate, but the private companies in many other countries all over the world are active in nuclear energy field, undoubtedly, the Chinese private companies will help improve the efficiency of China's nuclear power to go global." said Xu Yuming, deputy director of CNEA expert committee. 

In addition, compared with the state-owned enterprises, private enterprises also have natural advantages of corporate?property. As the example that Zhen Qiu has taken, the main reason why Chinese enterprises failed to compete with Financial Groups of South Korea and lost the bid for $40 billion worth UAE nuclear project is because there were not any Chinese private enterprises involved. 

WangJin, president of Guohe Intercontinental Energy Consulting Institute believes that identified as a private enterprise, without extreme state ideology, Ocean Nuclear can help relieve inexpressible worries caused by differences of national and political system when carrying out overseas investment in or M&A of large energy projects, so as to improve the success rate of investment and M&A. 

 (Editor in charge: Wang Huimian)

Source:Economic Infomation Daily

"The development is not balanced, but the market is still huge." Francois Morin, China Region Director of the World Nuclear Energy Association, described the current global market pattern of nuclear power during an interview with the Economic Information Daily reporter.

This is also the consensus of participants at the recent GNIS ? Nuclear Energy Investment Forum. In their view, the development of nuclear power in China is still in a period of strategic opportunities and will quadruple the proportion of generating capacity over the next 20 years. At present, it is also a good time to speed up the "going out" process. The first obstacle to be solved is financing. At present, the first private enterprise has emerged.

China's nuclear power is still in a period of strategic opportunities

Since the beginning of the first civil nuclear power in the Soviet Union in 1954, nuclear power in developed countries developed rapidly, especially in the 1960s and 1970s, but then two nuclear accidents in Three Mile Island and the Soviet Union Chernobyl slowed down the development of nuclear power in the world. With the oil price climbing up to more than 100 US dollars a barrel peak, the nuclear power development recoveries again. However, the accident of the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan led to the shadow rise again in 2011, and some countries and regions decided to abandon nuclear power, represented by Germany and Switzerland.

According to Yang Hanxin, PhD in the Department of Nuclear Energy Engineering at the University of Manchester in the UK, not only are the security issues behind the nuclear abandonment, but also factors such as a slowdown in energy demand and the impact of renewable energy. In fact, many countries, especially developing countries, now require massive power and are more pressing to develop nuclear energy.

Data shows that there are 448 nuclear power units operating in 31 countries around the world with a total installed capacity of 400 million kilowatts, accounting for about 10% of the world's power generation, peaked at 16% once. At the same time, until July 1, 2017, there are 59 nuclear power units under construction and 160 units under construction plans. The market size is close to 1.2 trillion U.S. dollars.

Francois Morin makes a more detailed analysis and description with a color map. It can be seen that 45 countries around the world are actively considering the development of nuclear energy projects such as Argentina, Belarus, Bangladesh, China, Brazil, Finland, Hungary, India, Iran, Pakistan, Romania, the United Kingdom, Russia, Slovakia, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey. It is estimated that by 2050, the world will add 1,000 GW of nuclear power installed capacity, being able to account for 25% of the total power generation.

China is considered to be one of the major forces in this. According to the "13th Five-Year Plan of China's Power Development", the installed nuclear power capacity in China will reach 58 million kilowatts in 2020, with a scale of more than 30 million kilowatts under construction. Data shows that until November 2017, China (excluding Taiwan) has put 37 nuclear power units into operation and 19 nuclear power units under construction. Nuclear power installed capacity ranked the 4th in the world, electricity generation is more than Japan and has entered the top 3 in the world. Nuclear power units under construction has ranked 1st in the world for many years.

In the past year, China's "Nuclear Safety Law" was formally promulgated. The Interim Provisions on Securing Nuclear Safety Consumption were issued and the CDFBR construction has started. The unexpected result was that the eight units scheduled to start operation at the beginning of the year were still pending approval. The first reactor AP1000-Sanmen has failed to put into operation on time. It has not even complete the loading node.

Xu Yuming, deputy director of China Nuclear Industry Association Expert Committee, believes that China's nuclear power development is still in a period of strategic opportunities. He said that nuclear power is the only energy source that can replace coal on a large scale and to provide stable and reliable power for the grid. It is indispensable in the construction of China's green low-carbon energy system. At present, nuclear power has a very low proportion of installed capacity and power generation, and there is enough potential for capacity expansion. It is estimated that the installed capacity of nuclear power in China could reach 100 GW to 120 GW by 2030, accounting for about 8% of nuclear power generation. From 2040 onwards, China's installed nuclear power capacity will reach 150GW, accounting for nearly 11%, about the world average, that means more than quadrupling the current level.

However, it cannot be ignored that China's nuclear power development also faces many challenges, including issues of safety, economy, independent innovation, public understanding and support. The construction of the third generation nuclear power generally faces problems such as delay of the construction period and increase of construction cost. Moreover, the economic, power supply and demand relations have entered into a 'new normalcy'. The measures such as bidding for the Internet and limiting the amount of on-grid electricity have reduced the utilization hours of nuclear power equipment.

Speeding up the "going global" process based on “Belt and Road”

Compared with the "calmness" in the domestic market, "going global" for China's nuclear power is much more popular. The independent research and development of nuclear power technology based on "Hualong No.1" has become a national business card for the high-level active overseas promotion.

On November 21, 2017, CNNC signed the third overseas unit contract of "Hualong-1". Before, the first overseas Hualong 1 reactor - Pakistan Karachi Nuclear Power Project K2 has completed the dome-mounted installation and entered the equipment installation. On November 16 of the same year, CGNPC Hualong 1 reactor has formally entered the second phase of UK General Design Review. The British Bradwell Project B using Hualong 1 technology has also entered the site exploration phase.

It is understood that CGNPC has signed memorandums of understanding or letter of cooperation with counterparts or government authorities from more than 20 countries such as the Czech Republic, Kenya and Thailand. CNNC also made substantial progress in the development of nuclear energy market with Argentina, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iran and other countries.

Xu Yuming said that China has built a comprehensive nuclear power industry system. Both the major equipment manufacturing capacity of nuclear power and the nuclear power construction capacity rank 1st in the world. There is a huge demand for developing nuclear power in the world. This makes a the very good opportunity for China nuclear to "going global".

Yang Hanxin also believes that unlike nuclear power development in other countries, China's nuclear power generation has been a continuous process of development over the past 30 years. It has abundant experience and has many advantages in terms of technology, capital, cost, duration, and policies.

In Francois Morin's opinion, the pace for China's nuclear power to go global cannot be slowed down. Countries along the "Belt and a Road" are the markets that should be explored. At the same time, some aging power plants will be retired and new reactors will be established in some countries and regions such as Western Europe, the United States and Japan. China has the opportunity and strength to develop these markets.

According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, about 130 new nuclear power plants will be built around the world by 2020, and this number will reach about 300 units by 2030. The countries along the Belt and Road and the neighboring countries will account for about 80% of the new units.

The first private enterprise to break through the financing obstacle

It is noteworthy that, despite the long-term and stable return on investment of nuclear power projects, the nuclear power project has the characteristics of high technology content, large capital investment and long return period on investment during landing. "The biggest obstacle to promoting nuclear energy at present is how to combine it with the green finance of the whole process," said Wei Jianguo, former vice minister of the Ministry of Commerce and vice chairman of China International Economic Exchange Center.

According to Xu Yuming, currently there are some private enterprises participating in the equipment part within China's entire nuclear power industrial chain but not yet in nuclear power plants. In building power plants, they are still mainly by CNNC, CGNPC and SNPTC. In terms of overseas mergers and acquisitions, Chinese enterprises come onto nuclear project investment late and the funding sources are mainly from policy-oriented financial institutions, lack of private sectors.

Ocean Nuclear Co. Ltd. (referred to as Ocean Nuclear) which established in October 2017, intents to be the first private company to "eat crabs." According to Qiu Zhen, chairman of the board, living in the new era of energy, it is absolutely impossible to cover the needs for financing all new nuclear power projects and the upgrading of old equipment. It is particularly important to provide financing tools for nuclear projects to fill vacancies in free markets.

As a result, Ocean Nuclear is positioned as a global nuclear energy financial service provider, dedicated to providing total solutions for investing and financing of nuclear power projects and focusing on systematic services that provide capital for world energy projects. It is understood that on November 27, 2017, the company set up a branch in London to start the global nuclear power investment plan and is currently negotiating a small modular reactor project in the UK. It will also choose to open branches in France, South Africa and South Korea in the future.

Souce:National Business Daily 

Reported by Chengcheng Zhou  Edited by Xu Chen

SASAC recently announced on its website the recombination, CNNC and China Nuclear E&C Group, which attracted entire world’s attention. Furthermore, Jianming Pan responded matters that concerned with the recombination, at the CNNIC 2018 Spring press conference on February 9th. Jianming Pan was attended the meeting as the board secretary of the group and news spokesman.

He also stated that the case of recombination will lead complementation on each other’s advantage. Meanwhile, nuclear industry chain would be enhanced and integrated. After the recombination, the industry chain is competitiveness and it’s real ‘accelerate internationalization’.

And from the current global unclear power development, Chinese enterprises could have plenty of great opportunities. Francois Morin, director of the China Association of the World Nuclear Energy Association (WNA), made an announcement at the first GNIS Nuclear Power Investment Forum held recently. In his view demand of power in some countries are growing rapidly, especially in the area of southeast Asia, the Middle East, Africa. Meanwhile, nuclear plants are aged and eliminated in the region of the United Kingdom and America. China has the technology and the strength to grasp the opportunities for the development of nuclear power in these countries. And the pace of China’s nuclear power globalization should be accelerated.

It is worth noticing that Chinese private enterprises are a force that cannot be neglected, moreover, they are ready to share the global nuclear investment market.

New demand for new construction urged by aged nuclear power plants

Few countries have chosen to abandon development of nuclear power, just because of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster happened in 2011. Which obviously caused a huge impact on global nuclear development. However, the recovery of the nuclear power market has become more apparent with judging from the development trend of global nuclear power in recent years

For example, Japan has resumed some nuclear power units, United Kingdom has started constructing new units. And a batch of developing nations without nuclear power, such Pakistan, Vietnam and so on are building, planning or proposed constructing nuclear power units.

According to WNA data (collected up to Jan. 1st 2018), there have been 447 nuclear power units in operation, 58 units are under construction throughout the world. In addition, 157 units have been approved and fully funded (or solemn promise made), and most of them will be constructed and put into operation in the next 8 - 10 years according to plan. 351 units are proposed to be constructed and available with definite plans or site recommendations, most which will be put into operation within the next 15years. Totally, over 500 nuclear power units that be planned or proposed being constructed, will form a trillions yuan size market.

China has already accelerated the process of globalization. And ‘Hualong One’ is the most prominent in the world. It is also the flagship production during the process, which obtains the mature and excellent technology. UK Generic Design Assessment (GDA) has been launched in January 2017, and now it’s already been processed in phase two. The third stage is scheduled to start at the end of the year. Moreover, China has signed the contract with Argentina to build its fourth nuclear power plant by using ‘Hualong One’.

Yuming Xu, deputy director of China Nuclear Energy Association (CNEA) expert committee, told National Business Daily’s reporter that opportunity is already been provided to China for accelerating internationalization. Which because a batch of nuclear power units in Europe and the United States is about retirement. 

For example, the United Kingdom currently has 8 nuclear power plants, which generate 20% of the electricity used in the UK and will expire in 2030. At the same time, the UK’s thermal power plants will be shut down by 2025.

Including the United Kingdom, some countries have placed new nuclear power projects on the agenda to replace the current aging generator set and reduce carbon emissions. Yuming Xu shows that for China, the nuclear power market in the next 30 years, 40 years or even longer would have potential. And it is necessary to firmly grasp the opportunities to achieve China’s nuclear power to the world and participate in competition.

The ‘Belt and Road’ Power demand opportunities

It is worth noting that with the advancement of the ‘Belt and Road’ initiative, China’s nuclear power accelerate internationalization would speed up. 

Yibin Huang, director of the energy and chemical industry group at CITIC Securities’ Investment Banking Division, said that China may have greater success in Southeast Asia and regions compared with the success of China’s nuclear power in the UK and other regions. In particular, countries along the ‘Belt and Road’ have very great prospects for development.

Hanxin Yang, chief scientist of Ocean Nuclear Energy CO., Ltd., said that in many countries such as Brazil, Argentina, South Africa and Pakistan, electricity demand has grown rapidly under economic development. Due to the balance of national energy policies, these countries will not rely on a single type of energy. Moreover, the Paris Agreement also restricts the level of carbon emissions in these countries’, which highlight the Clean energy will have more development advantages. Also, with current instability of some renewable energy sources, nuclear power has become a better choice for some countries and regions. And all these have brought opportunities for China's nuclear power accelerate internationalization.

According to Morin, except for China, the regions with the highest growth rate of nuclear power from 2016 to 2040 concentrates on India and Southeast Asia etc., with an average increase of more than 100%. The nuclear power technology and infrastructure in these regions are weak, and the growth potential is very high.

Qin Sun, former chairman of China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), once stated in 2016 that by the year2030, the number of nuclear power units along the “Belt and Road” project is expected to approach 100, and ‘Hualong one’ can account for about 20% to 30% of the market share. According to estimates of a total investment of 15 billion yuan for a single ‘Hualong one’ unit, the market size can reach more than 300 billion yuan.

With the opportunity, China still has a competitive advantage

Yang Hanxin said that the accumulation of experience in the development of nuclear power is crucial. Compared with some developed countries, China’s nuclear power construction started a little later, but at present China’s advantage lies in the accumulation of experience of sustainable development. Since Daya Bay Nuclear Power plant, China’s nuclear power construction has never stopped during these years. 

However, some advanced countries with advanced technologies and experience in nuclear power construction have long been short of nuclear power industry support for the development of nuclear power technology, thus lacking practical application opportunities for innovative technologies.

Private enterprises should actively participate in global nuclear investment

Yuming Xu stated that China’s nuclear power unit under construction ranks first in the world for more than five consecutive years. The development of nuclear power has led to the development of the entire industry chain and technological upgrading, what is more, the level of self-independence, localization is continuously improving. Meanwhile, application of non-powered nuclear technology has reached outstanding achievements.

With plenty of good news, many companies are also expecting to have a finger in the pie

Ocean Nuclear has been aiming at global nuclear power investment in recent years. Zhen Qiu, chairman of the company, said that financial would be inseparable through the whole unclear power project. Not only in upgrading of nuclear power projects, extension of life, transformation, also the demand from countries along the ‘Belt and Road’.

Yanyu Shi, executive president of the organizing committee of GNIS Global Nuclear Energy Investment Summit, has put forward that Nuclear power projects have strong profitability, long and stable return periods, but enormous investments and high scientific research costs. With the increase of demand for global energy production and financing, the government’s infrastructure construction budget alone can neither cover the financing of all new nuclear energy projects nor upgrade old equipment. Therefore, it is particularly important to provide financing tools for nuclear power projects to fill the gaps in the market.

It is should be noticed that, due to the high threshold of the nuclear power industry for a long time, few Chinese private capital has participated in overseas nuclear power investment. According to the introduction by Yuming Xu, that there are many China’s private enterprises are active in China’s entire nuclear power industry chain. However, no private enterprises have participated in nuclear power plant investment. But in many countries in the world, private investment is active in nuclear power.

Meanwhile, Yuming Xu stated that the participation of Chinese private enterprises in the global investment in nuclear power is a good thing. Because the private enterprises’ investment behavior is more flexible, and it is conducive to improve the development efficiency of the nuclear power industry.