Currently, China has only nine nuclear reactors that fulfill less than two percent of the country's energy needs.

But policy makers in Beijing have vowed to increase that to four percent by 2020 to meet the voracious demands of an economy that becomes more industrialized and more urbanized by each passing year.

To this end, a total of 32 reactors with a capacity of at least 1,000 megawatts each will be installed over the next 15 years.

It is estimated that as a result of this vast expansion plan, 80 percent of all new nuclear power plants over the next two decades will be built in China.

While all of China's nuclear generating capacity is currently located in its prosperous coastal areas, more and more local governments in the nation's impoverished central regions are also trying to build their own reactors.

Southwestern Sichuan, which is China's second-most populous province with 87 million inhabitants, organized a seminar in mid-September to pick three sites for future nuclear plants.

In another indication of China's enthusiasm for nuclear power, companies in the French power sector like EDF, Framatome and Alstom have seen a steady flow of Chinese delegations since early this year.

They want to see first-hand "what the French nuclear program is like," said Didier Cordero, top China representative of EDF, France's state-owned power utility.

In Beijing, the level of activity has also picked up markedly, and observers have noticed a slew of important decisions emerging from the National Development and Reform Commission, the top planning body, since this summer.

In late July, China went public with a plan to add two new reactors to the southern site of Ling'ao, which already has two reactors, built in cooperation with Framatome, Alston and EDF.

And last week, the government invited bids for the construction of four third-generation reactors at the sites of Sanmen in eastern China and Yangjiang in the south.

These projects have a combined value of up to nine billion dollars, but winning them could have a much broader significance than that for foreign contractors.

They could set the industrial standard for future projects, determining which national technologies will be favored in the years ahead.

"We want to take part in as many projects as possible for the duration of the Chinese nuclear expansion program," said Herve de Preneuf, chief China representative for French power group Areva.

"But we're aware that the Chinese will strive to play a large role themselves," he said.

Unlike Finland, which recently bought a turn-key reactor from Areva, China is more interested in also acquiring the skills and technology to develop its own nuclear power industry, French insiders said.

"Since this is third-generation and thus very advanced technology, they hope to give overall responsibility to the foreign supplier," said Preneuf.

"But at the same time, they want to make sure that the foreign contractor works with Chinese enterprises to the greatest extent possible," he said.

While France benefits from the experiences of two decades of doing business in China's nuclear industry, Beijing could decide to lean more on American companies partly in order to reduce its trade surplus with the United States.

Paris-based Areva, the world's top maker of nuclear reactors, is competing with a consortium led by US-based Westinghouse, which could also see the participation of Japanese and South Korean companies.

Westinghouse has high-level backers, at it has been promoted by a series of ranking US guests visiting Beijing, including Vice President Dick Cheney during a trip to the Chinese capital in April.

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