visit.
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Discussions were held in a friendly and frank atmosphere,
and the Chinese themselves expressed their wish to make substantial
progress on this project before your visit to Peking.
To help
achieve this, a number of private discussions took place on a
Government-to-Government basis.
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During discussions, it became clear that the Chinese favoured
Westinghouse as the supplier of the nuclear island, believing that
they were able to offer a better level of technology than competitors.
The Chinese recognised, though, that supply direct from the USA
would be very difficult because of the attitude of Congress to
nuclear non-proliferation issues. The Chinese therefore requested
that the UK consider making a joint National Nuclear Corporation/
Westinghouse bid for the nuclear island.
5
Accordingly, my officials offered to present a comprehensive
package for the whole project, including a Westinghouse-led nuclear
island, the conventional island from GEC Turbine Generators Ltd,
fuel processing services by British Nuclear Fuels Ltd and technical
support from such agencies as the Central Electricity Generating
Board, Atomic Energy Authority and Nuclear Installations Inspectorate.
The Chinese readily accepted this offer and requested that it be
given to them in sufficient time for it to be studied before your
visit. This is an extremely tight timetable, but the necessary
work is in hand. It is difficult at this stage to be precise about
the value of the project but the total value of the equipment and
services could be as much as £1.5 billion with a maximum UK supply
of £1 billion. This would of course produce considerable benefit
to UK manufacturers in both the nuclear and conventional fields.
SS/29A
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