China, US near end to nuclear technology dispute

[UpInArms]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2004-09-02-china-us-nuke-tech_x.htm

NEW YORK (Reuters) — China and the United States are close to resolving a long dispute over the transfer of nuclear technology, paving the way for U.S. companies to sell nuclear reactors to China in transactions that may be worth billions of dollars, the Wall Street Journal said Thursday.

"This is happening," an unidentified U.S. State Department official told the newspaper. Sanctions, export controls and most other barriers to sale have been removed, he said.

If all goes smoothly, Pittsburgh's Westinghouse Electric expects to receive U.S. government permission to begin bidding in late 2004 or early 2005 to provide reactors for one or two Chinese nuclear power plants, with reactors selling for about $2.2 billion a pair, company spokesman Vaughn Gilbert told the newspaper.

China has embarked on an ambitious plan to add two to three nuclear power plants a year for roughly the next 15 years, so that nuclear power will account for about 4% of the country's power mix by 2020, said Zhang Huazhu, chairman of the China Atomic Energy Authority, on Wednesday.

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Former U.S. President Bill Clinton had revived a 1985 agreement to allow cooperation on nuclear energy. However, Washington still did not approve commercial contracts with Beijing, due to additional export controls and concerns about prior Chinese proliferation of nuclear technology to Iran and Pakistan, the newspaper sai

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