CHINA will push its big nuclear firms to improve their competitiveness and boost their presence overseas as it bids to become one of the world’s dominant nuclear energy powers, Premier Li Keqiang said.

    “To continue the struggle to become a strong nuclear energy power, China must comprehensively raise the industry’s competitive advantages, promote nuclear power equipment overseas, and ensure the industry is absolutely safe,” Li said at a ceremony Thursday to mark the 60th anniversary of the launch of China’s civilian nuclear power program.

    Speaking at the same ceremony, President Xi Jinping said the nuclear sector was “an important cornerstone of China’s national security,” Xinhua reported Friday.

    China has 22 reactors in operation and another 26 under construction, and aims to raise total capacity to 58 gigawatts by the end of 2020, up from 20 GW now, but it needs to go much further to meet its low-carbon energy targets.

    “Maybe we are now looking at 200 GW by 2030, making it the leading nuclear country by capacity, but there is still potential for nuclear to take an even greater share,” said Agneta Rising, director general of the World Nuclear Association, at a conference in Beijing on Thursday.

    China hopes its domestic reactor program will create opportunities abroad, and China’s two biggest State nuclear firms, the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) and China General Nuclear Corporation (CGN), have already agreed to invest in Britain’s Hinkley Point nuclear project.

    Wang Zhongtang, chief engineer at the State Nuclear Power Technology Corp. (SNPTC), said Thursday that China was also well on its way to securing projects in Turkey and South Africa.(SD-Agencies)