(Yicai Global) Feb. 25 -- China will commence building work in June on its first new nuclear power station since 2015. 

The  country will start construction on the plant in southeastern Fujian  province's Zhangzhou, according to a statement from local environment  authorities. China is expected to give the green light to the  installation of eight nuclear power units this year through a total  investment of CNY160 billion (USD23.8 billion).

Construction of the  Zhangzhou facility's first unit will start on June 30 followed by the  second unit ten months later. Based on a 60-month construction period,  the two units will enter commercial operation in June 2024 and April  2025 respectively.

The  Chinese government has approved construction of four Hualong One  nuclear power units last month, with two of them to be built in  Zhangzhou by China National Nuclear Corporation. The two others will be  built in Huizhou, Guangdong province, by China General Nuclear Power  Group. Hualong One is a third-generation nuclear power technology  independently researched and developed in China. 

China  introduced four VVER-1200 third-generation nuclear power units from  Russia last year, to be installed in Jiangsu province and Liaoning  province, respectively, this year. Each VVER-1200 and Hualong One unit  costs around CNY20 billion, according to China National Nuclear Power.

China aims to achieve an installed nuclear power capacity of 58 million kilowatts by 2020, according  to government plans, with 30 million kw under construction. The country  boasted an installed nuclear power capacity of 45.9 million kw as of  last month. A further 12.2 million kw of nuclear power are under  construction, which is some 30 million kw shy of the current target, so  30 more third-generation units still need to be built.

Editor: William Clegg