The final winner of a US$8-billion contract to build four nuclear reactors at two power plants in Zhejiang and Guangdong provinces will most likely be hammered out by October.

One of three competitors Paris-based Areva, Pittsburgh-based but UK-owned Westinghouse Electric Company and Russia's AtomStroyExport is expected to get the nod from the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), said Fu Manchang, secretary-general of Chinese Nuclear Society (CNS) during an exclusive interview with China Daily Thursday.

"It's hard to predict which one will be the final winner," said Fu. "We are offering equal and fair chances to international bidders."

Construction is expected to start a year after the signing of contracts.

The three submitted final bids for the February 28 deadline.

If won by Westinghouse, the project will be the first contract in the Chinese nuclear power sector for the US unit of State-owned British Nuclear Fuels Plc, which designs half the world's nuclear reactors.

"China's decision over the bidding will be made in September at the earliest," Donald J. Miller, deputy project manager in China of nuclear power plants, Westinghouse Electric Company, told China Daily.

"We have the quality and competitive price to back our bid," said Miller. He refused to elaborate on its price offer.

"The possibility for us to win is still 50-50," said Miller.

Insiders said the US-based reactor builder is also counting on the US Government to help unseat France's Areva as the leader in China's nuclear-power market as US President George W. Bush's administration pushes to boost his country's involvement in China's nuclear program.

After supplying four of China's nine working nuclear plants over 20 years, the world's biggest reactor builder, Areva, is also gearing up its sales pitch in China.

Recently, the French builder has signed two contracts with China to supply the primary circuits and instrumentation and control systems for the third and fourth units of the Ling Ao power plant extension project in Guangdong Province, which together amounts to almost 400 million euros (US$500 million), said company sources.

Besides business relations, industry analysts said political concerns are also vital in the final the bidding.

"China's relations with France are different from those with the United States," said Jen-Shih Chang, a professor in nuclear engineering at Canada-based McMaster University.

Meanwhile, Russian company AtomStroyExport is helping build two 1,060-megawatt reactors in Tianwan, East China's Jiangsu Province, which are expected to go online by the end of the year - one year later than the originally planned construction schedule.

Improper management has resulted in construction delay, said a senior engineer with Jiangsu Nuclear Power Corp, who is in charge of the Tianwan project assessment.

To meet surging energy demands, China has vowed to increase nuclear power generation fourfold to 40,000 megawatts by 2020. It will eventually account for 4 per cent of the country's installed capacity - which means at least 30 new nuclear plants will need to be built within 15 years.

"Two of the new four reactors are set for the Sanmen nuclear power plant, East China's Zhejiang Province and the others will be installed in the Yangjiang plant of South China's Guangdong Province," Fu said. He is among delegates attending the five-day 13th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE13), which wraps up today in Beijing.

(China Daily May 20, 2005)