As Beijing pursues the world's biggest civilian nuclear power expansion, Tim Collier, vice-president and managing director of Westinghouse China, said the company is localizing its four core businesses in China, including nuclear fuel, services and nuclear power plants.

"We will also use our expertise to help our Chinese partners expand on the global stage," he said.

Hunan reactor ready to resume construction

Two nuclear firms seek to invest in new UK reactors

Founded in 2007, SNPTC is the general contractor for the first four AP1000 reactors being built in China. It developed the CAP1400.

In January, the preliminary design for the CAP1400 reactor, which has a standard 1.4 GW of generating capacity, was approved by the top planner, the National Development and Reform Commission.

Zheng Mingguang, head of the Shanghai Nuclear Engineering Research and Design Institute, said that China has intellectual property rights covering the complete design of the CAP1400, of which 65 percent has been finished.

"About 80 percent of the components for the first two CAP1400 units will be made in China," he said. "That's very important, because it means China can export its own reactors and services, as well as other nuclear equipment."

China is now capable of making six to eight third-generation nuclear reactors a year, according to SNPTC.

The station at Sanmen, Zhejiang, is likely to have the world's first operating AP1000 reactor. The reactor could start generating electricity as early as next year.

Four other AP1000 reactors are being built, all of them in the US: two at the Vogtle site in Georgia and two at the Virgil C. Summer Nuclear Generating Station site in South Carolina.