"We are in the midst of technical exchanges with America's Westinghouse, France's Framatome (a subsidiary of Areva) and Russia's AtomStroyExport," Kang Rixin, general manager of the state-owned China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) told journalists.

The three manufacturers tendered bids early this year for the third generation multi-billion dollar reactors with a pair to be built in Sanmen in the eastern province of Zhejiang and Yangjiang in Guangdong province.

"We are making efforts to analyze the tender documents put forward by these three companies and still have some issues that we need to understand like matters concerning technical levels, technical transfers and pricing, which is a sensitive issue," Kang said.

"If everything goes smoothly, then I think that we will be able to quickly make the decision."

Political considerations for the eventual winner or winners were not being made during the decision-making process at CNNC, Kang said.

"The purpose of CNNC is to contribute to the economic development of China by developing nuclear power, from my perspective in such a process there is no such thing as political considerations," he said.

"As long as the technology concerned is conducive to the economic development of China, then we will choose to use this technology."

He did not comment on what influence the State Council, China's cabinet, or the planning ministry would have in the decision-making process.

China presently has nine nuclear power plants in operation, with two more Russian-made plants expected to go on line by early next year, and eight other plants already having the central government approval, Kang said.

China currently gets just 2.3 percent of its energy from nuclear power plants and is hoping to increase that to 4.0 percent by 2020, which will make it the world's fastest developer of nuclear power.

To achieve this, China plans to increase its nuclear generating capacity from the current 8,700 megawatts to 36,000 megawatts by 2020, equal to the construction of a 1,000 megawatt nuclear reactor a year.

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