East China's Shandong Province is to launch a sea water desalination project using nuclear energy in its eastern coastal area, which is short of fresh water.

A local official said that the project will utilize technology related to nuclear energy developed by Beijing's Tsinghua University.

The project will require over 1 billion yuan.

Once it is in operation, the project will have a daily production capacity of 160,000 tons of fresh water.

Experts point out that nuclear technology can reduce the cost of desalination, as well as improve the production capacity.

(People's Daily 07/02/2001)