Qian Zhimin, president of the China National Nuclear Corp (CNNC), signed contracts with the president of Argentina's state-run energy company Nucleoelectrica, Jose Luis Antunez, during the Group of Twenty summit in Antalya, Turkey, on Nov 15.

The agreements call for CNNC to work with Nucleoelectrica on Argentina's fourth nuclear reactor and a fifth nuclear power plant, using China's pressurized-water technology, HPR1000.

These contracts open the door to nuclear equipment exports to the South American country amounting to as much as 30 billion yuan ($4.7 billion) and greater cooperation in trade and production capacity in the nuclear energy business.

China had a pilot run of its Hualong 1 technology, on May 7, and work on the Fuqing nuclear power plant’s Unit 5in Fujian province, got off to a formal start. One of its subprojects, a pump house welcomed its first concrete date on Nov 6, which kicked off the all-round construction period of HPR1000 projects.