CONFIDENTIAL
GUANGDONG NUCLEAR PROJECT CURRENT POSITION AND OUTSTANDING ACTIONS
Current Position
1. Feasibility Reports submitted to Guangdong Provincial Government, Hong Kong and
UK Governments. Provincial Government Commission headed by Lian Tianfu with
Lu Ying as Secretary submitted a report to Peking (see Figure 1). Peking Ministry
responsibilities probably as in Figure 2.
2. Lord Carrington discussed project with Chinese Prime Minister stressing the
Hong Kong connection and our desire for a major UK content, in collaboration with
the French. Mr Zhai recognised British and Hong Kong interests but said that
feasibility studies had not yet been completed and that there were technical
problems to be solved. He spoke in somewhat general terms about potential hardware
suppliers, and the possibility of intemational competition, but did not comment
on any Chinese commitment to the French on reactors.
3. Conflicting reports from China continue. Mr Yang Shangkun, ex-mayor of Canton
and now Vice-Chairman of the National Peoples Congress told a Belgian delegation
that the decision to go ahead with the power station had been taken, that the
Fremh would supply the reactors, the UK the associated equipment and the
Americans "equipment associated with the associated equipment". He added that
there would be contracts available for other countries as well, and gave the
impression throughout that all these points had been firmly decided. However,
Mr Yu Qiuli, head of the Energy Commission, simply said recently that nuclear
power was a long-term question and that China had abundant resources of coal
which should be used first. Mr Yu may be in the decline, but these conflicting
reports could suggest considerable internal discussion in China.