2
CONFIDENTIAL
annual consumption of 250 kilowatt-hours per head (compared with 4,180 kilowatt- ours per head for the UK in the same year). This capacity is insufficient to meet demand and with electricity output predicted to grow by 4% a year market opportunities will arise for turbines in 3 main areas of power generation: nuclear, coal and hydro-electric. Securing the Guangdong project would provide an entry into this potentially vast market. Moreover, if British Electricity International provides operational training and other services to the client, the introduction of British methods and British standards at this level could be expected to give a significant advantage to UK suppliers in future. Contact with British methods and standards through GEC and NNC could influence a wide range of Chinese per- sonnel and organisations.
B
i.
8
INDUSTRIAL
Development Aspects
The decision of the CEGB to specify 2 x 660 MW machines for the Sizewell PWR, rather than 1 x 1300 MW machine has deprived GEC of the possibility of establishing a large high-speed reference plant in the UK. The Guangdong project gives them an opportunity to break into this very important market, in which only Brown Boveri and Kraftwerk Union at present have a capability.
9
The same argument applies to the nuclear island. Although,by enhancing their existing capabilities, UK manufacturers could supply all but a small percentage of the components required for the PWR reactor unit, the PWR is new to British industry in the sense that neither the nuclear suppliers nor the construction industry has previously sourced and built a complete PWR power station. NNC's involvement in the project would strengthen their expertise in the nuclear power station field by giving them project experience overseas at the same time as their involvement at home with the Sizewell B project. The Guangdong project would also give valuable experience to the many sub-contractors who would be involved both in this project and at Sizewell B.
ii
Employment Aspects
10 Estimates of the employment provided by the project are as follows:
Man years
GEC T-G and sub-
contractors (turbines)
22,000
-
24,000
NNC (nuclear island)
15,000
Balfour Beatty
1,700
(transmission line)
BNFL (conversion of
1,080
of uranium ore, fabrication of fuel elements, uranium enrichment
(+ 360 annually)
Total:
41,780
+ 360 pa during life of station
Location(s)
NW, NE, N. Ireland,
Scotland
NW, NE, Midlands
Scotland
S. Wales, Merseyside
Staffordshire
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