China Gives Green Light to Eight Nuclear Plants in $25 Billion Power Push

What Happened

Regulatory disclosures from government-owned utilities indicate the State Council, Beijing's cabinet, cleared work on installations in four regions: Guangdong, Liaoning, Zhejiang, and Shandong.

The batch includes Units 5 and 6 at Huizhou, located in Guangdong province. A unit of CGN Power Co., the country's leading nuclear generator, will operate both. Each reactor is designed to contribute 1,217 MW of capacity when finished, sufficient to supply about one million Chinese households.

Separate stock-exchange filings show China National Nuclear Power Corp. received the go-ahead for its Zhuanghe project in Liaoning and its Jinqimen plant in Zhejiang, while SPIC Industry-Finance Holdings Co. was cleared to proceed with its Laiyang development in Shandong.

The approvals were disclosed through stock-exchange statements by the state-controlled developers involved. The four projects sit in different provincial regions, underlining the national scope of the latest stage of the reactor build-out.

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Why It Matters

These go-aheads highlight Beijing's effort to guarantee steady, 24-hour electricity at a time of fast-rising demand. Even though China has more solar and wind capacity than any other country, atomic reactors are essential to deliver emissions-free baseline electricity and keep an electricity network dependable when renewable output dips.

Beijing fell short of earlier goals of 58 GW by 2020 and 70 GW by 2025. The gaps owed partly to a years-long pause in approvals after Japan's 2011 Fukushima accident, plus supply-chain delays after the pandemic.

Background

The 2030 target of 110 GW, while ambitious, is not guaranteed. Without a reliable nuclear core, grid operators would remain exposed to lulls in renewable generation. The target is a 76% jump from end-2025 levels, so it would require the equivalent of roughly 47,000 MW of new nuclear capacity in about five years. That is a faster pace than the country has sustained since the post-Fukushima pause, and any slippage at one project can ripple through the entire schedule.

Meeting the goal also depends on a steady stream of permits. The latest batch follows the pattern of multiple reactor approvals per year, and each new approval starts a construction cycle that can take years before power is produced. The history of missed targets shows that approval is only the first step.

Outlook

Reaching it will require Beijing to keep clearing several reactor batches each year and bring them online on schedule. Each additional batch of approvals helps, but only completed reactors contribute to the capacity target. Approval dates mark the start of construction efforts rather than the moment power is delivered, so execution will determine whether the 110 GW goal is met. The latest approvals move the country closer to its goal, but the history of missed milestones shows the risks that remain.

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