Tianwan Nuclear Power Station in Jiangsu province. (File photo)

The next 10 to 15 years may be an important opportunity for the advancement of nuclear power in China, said a nuclear power official, news site thepaper.cn reported.

The Chinese mainland has 37 nuclear units in service with a capacity of 35.63 million kilowatts. They generated 182.9 billion kilowatt hours of electricity in the first nine months of this year, 4.2 percent of the country’s total power and an increase of 21.37 percent, Qin Zhijun, deputy director of the National Energy Administration’s nuclear power division, said at a press conference on October 31.

Qin said China has 19 nuclear power reactors under construction, more than any other country, with a combined installed capacity of 21.87 million kilowatts.

Over the past 10 years, the industry’s level of innovation has been improved markedly, driven and supported by major and special projects to advance nuclear power technologies, Qin said.

China is now able to manufacture six to eight sets of nuclear power facilities per year, and some 85 percent of the third-generation reactors can be made domestically.