活況を呈する中国の原子力市場を巡って各国の原子炉メーカーが鎬を削っておりますが、とくに米国のジェネラル・エレクトリック(GE)社は、これまで中国で稼働中の加圧水型軽水炉(PWR)の代わりに、同社デザインの沸騰水型軽水炉(BWR)を採用すべきであると強く中国側に働きかけているようです。現在世界で稼働中の原子炉の約５分の１がＢＷＲ型ですが、ＧＥ社としては、台湾の第４原発の２基（同社系のFairfield社製）の建設が完了するとそれ以後は受注が全くなくなるので、中国市場に大きな期待をかけている模様です。

米中原子力協力関係は、天安門事件(1989年）以後米国政府の対中貿易禁止措置により中断しており、その間にフランスのAreva社とロシアのAtomStroyExport社が有利な原子力商戦を展開しておりますが、ここに来てＧＥ社がブッシュ政権の後押しで猛烈な巻き返しに出ているわけです。中国は当面新たに４基の原子炉を建設する計画で、そのための国際入札は去る２月２８日に締め切られましたところ、この入札にはＧＥは招待されていなかったと、同社のWhite原子力本部長は言っています。なお、彼の見通しでは、アジア(中国を含む)では2020年までに４２基の原子炉が建設される見込みとのことです。ご参考まで。（以下の情報：熱田利明氏提供）

By Wing-Gar Cheng Bloomberg News
Tuesday, April 19, 2005
　　http://www.iht.com/bin/print_ipub.php?file=/articles/2005/04/18/bloomberg/sxnuke.html

BEIJING Andrew White, head of General
Electric's nuclear unit, is lobbying
China to accept a design used in
one-fifth of the world's reactors to
catch up with Areva of France in the
world's fastest-growing market.

China's insistence on so-called
pressurized-water reactors that run half
the world's nuclear plants is preventing
GE from offering its boiling-water
technology, White said recently in an
interview in Beijing.

GE is counting on China to revive
reactor sales after the Fairfield,
Connecticut-based company completes its
only existing project to install two
units in Taiwan. China may account for
half the 70 gigawatts of new nuclear
power capacity built around the world
over the next 15 years, White said.

"There's not much we can do until we're
allowed to bid," White said. "We'll be
lucky to get into the next round of
bidding."

China's plan to increase its nuclear
power capacity to 36,000 megawatts by
2020 will require an estimated 27 new
1,000-megawatt reactors costing about $2
billion each, according to a September
estimate by Yu Jianfeng, a director at
China National Nuclear.

American companies were prevented until
last year from selling reactors to China
by U.S. export restrictions imposed
after the 1989 crackdown on
pro-democracy demonstrations. That left
the market clear for Paris-based Areva,
the world's largest builder of nuclear
reactors, and Russia's AtomStroyExport.

"We're playing catch up," White said.
"We're in the position where we are
because we were late into the game."

China needs to add two reactors a year
to meet a target of generating 4 percent
of its power from nuclear plants by
2020, in contrast with the United States
and Europe, where environmental and
safety concerns have halted reactor
construction.

China did not extend an invitation to GE
to bid for an $8 billion contract that
closed on Feb. 28 to build four
reactors, White said.

"They want to standardize on one single
technology and they want to feel
comfortable they can execute the
technology transfer," White said.

GE is intensifying efforts to educate
the Chinese government, utilities and
universities about its boiling-water
technology, and is raising awareness
that the company is "in the nuclear
industry," White said.

China's four nuclear power plants, which
account for 1.7 percent of the country's
electricity needs, use pressurized-water
technology from France, Russia and
Canada.

Developed nations such as the United
States and Germany have halted their
nuclear programs because of concerns
about safety and environmental risks,
highlighted by the 1986 Chernobyl
reactor accident in the Ukraine. But
China is leading a revival in nuclear
power among developing countries,
especially in Asia.

Asian countries may build 42 reactors by
2020, according to GE estimates.