Prysmian Awarded Strategic Contract For Cabling New Nuclear Power Plants In China

Prysmian Will Develop And Install High-Tech Special Cables With A High Resistance To Radiation Exposure For Use Both Inside And Outside Of Nuclear Reactors

Prysmian Cables & Systems, a worldwide leading player in the energy and telecom cable sectors, has achieved an important success in the strategic and high-tech sector of cables for nuclear power plants. CNPEC (China Nuclear Power Engineering Company) has awarded Prysmian a contract for the development, supply and installation of special cables of K1 and k3 types for two new nuclear power stations, which are being built in Hongyanhe and Ningde in Liaoning and Fujian provinces respectively. This contract holds a particular strategic importance for the Group, as it concerns cables designed and manufactured utilizing Prysmian’s proprietary technology, developed from over two decades worth of experience in collaborating with worldwide major developers of nuclear power stations. Both types of cables are designed to be resistant to radiation exposure. In particular the K1 cables, for installation inside the reactor, are developed to withstand a much higher load and are tested and approved according to the LOCA test (Loss of Coolant Accident), that certifies its resistance even after a potential leakage of the reactor cooling agent (typically heavy water).

“With this order Prysmian further demonstrates its capabilities to be present in the industrial and energy sectors with higher added value and technological input, explains Fabio Romeo, Head of Prysmian Energy Cables business. From the recent agreement with Petrobras for the entrance into the flexible pipes market for oil production, to the cabling of off-shore wind farms to nuclear cables, Prysmian is more than ever the ideal partner for the main worldwide operators in the energy fields needing advanced technologies and know-how”.

Cables will be manufactured in the French plant of Paron and in the new Chinese Tianjin factory and delivered to the two stations over a time span of four years. The deal has an estimated value of 10 million euros, a sizeable order for these high technology cables. The designing of the cables has been developed in collaboration with CNPEC, who chose Prysmian not only for its know-how and the quality of its product offering, but also for the Group’s efforts in developing and implementing a large percentage of the components in China. Prysmian’s product offering for nuclear power plants ranges from Medium and Low Voltage power cables to the small instrumentation, control and data communication cables.

Prysmian has recently presented a development plan outlining its activities in China, which aims at achieving growth of about 50% of its business by 2010, with particular focus on higher added value and technology content sectors, high voltage networks, special cables for industrial applications and fibre optic telecom cables. Prysmian has five manufacturing plants and over 1000 employees in China. Recent major projects include the cabling of the 2008 Olympic Village in Beijing, the cabling of Beijing’s new underground system and the cable supply for the new high-voltage system in Shanghai.