Standardization, Diversity, and Learning in China's Nuclear Power Program
In the mid-1990s China hoped to build 20 gigawatts (GW) of nuclear generating capacity by 2010 and 30-40 GW by 2020. By the year 2000 2 GW (3 units at 2 plant sites) had been constructed and 6 GW (8 units at 4 plants) were under construction. Four different vendors are supplying the reactors at the four nuclear power plant sites. These vendors are from China, France, Canada, and Russia. The multitude of vendors is due in part to financing constraints. This is leading to a very diverse nuclear power industry. This paper explores the tradeoff between standardization and diversity in the Chinese nuclear power industry, based on David and Rothwell (1996). If the current Chinese nuclear power program can be interpreted as the first stage of a multistage project, where later stages will standardize on a single design, we could interpret the current Chinese strategy as one of optimal experimentation. But this optimality depends on developing a program to maximize learning from the diversity of these nuclear power technologies. This could also mean that the Chinese should operate the plants under construction before committing to a standard.