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The State Council, China's cabinet, has given preliminary approval to the construction of four new multibillion-dollar nuclear power generators.
There will be two generators in Sanmen in East China's Zhejiang Province and another two in Lingdong, South China's Guangdong Province. Each generator will have a capacity of 1 million kilowatts.
The last time the government approved a new nuclear power plant was in 1997.
Many provinces are lobbying the State Council to build more plants to meet the increasing demand for electricity and to cash in on the lucrative business. Those interested include coastal provinces such as Fujian, Jiangsu and Shandong, and Hubei and Hunan provinces and Chongqing Municipality in the interior.
Under a long-term blueprint, the government hopes to raise the country's nuclear power generating capacity to four times its current level by 2020, reaching between 32 million and 40 million kilowatts. This would help increase...