China has started building its first nuclear power plant in southeastern Fujian Province.

According to the Fujian Provincial Development and Reform Commission, the first phase of the plant in Ningde city will consist of four reactors with one gigawatt of generating capacity each. The cost for the largest energy investment project in the province will come to nearly eight billion yuan.

Zhang Shanming is the deputy manager of the plant's contractor, Guangdong Nuclear Power Investment Company.

The nuclear plant, which is equal to a thermal power plant in terms of capacity, will save the consumption volume of three million tons of coal.

He said the first reactor is expected to be put into operation in 2012, and the rest will follow up one by one in the next three years. The plant will adopt the improved second generation of nuclear power technologies.

The plant, 143 kilometers north of Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian, will be China's first island nuclear station.