On top of a proposal to resume nuclear power construction projects in eastern China, Premier Li Keqiang has unveiled plan to substitute concentrated high-efficiency utilization of coal for general utilization, for the sake of combating air pollution.

AP1000 will become the dominant nuclear power technology in China, though the country does not yet have any AP1000 reactors in operation, said nuclear power expert Tang Zide.

With downside risks for the nation's economy on the rise, construction will start on a number of nuclear power projects and ultra-high pressure power transmission lines in coastal areas, the nation's new National Energy Commission concluded at its first meeting on April 18, presided over by Premier Li.

The energy projects are intended not only to adjust the nation's energy mix but also bolster economic growth, according to the National Business Daily.

Li said furthermore that the projects in eastern coastal areas will embrace the highest safety standards in the world. The meeting also resolved not to begin work on nuclear plants in inland regions of the country during the current five-year national development plan, which concludes at the end of 2015.

The country will ease off coal-fired power generation to make way for cleaner energy sources such as natural gas and nuclear power, said Jiang Kejuan, a research fellow at the Institute of Energy under the National Development and Reform Commission, according to the paper.

The meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi power plant in Japan following an earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 prompted Beijing to review and revise its nuclear power policy before a number of nuclear power projects resumed in October 2012.

According to the website of the National Nuclear Safety Administration under the Ministry of Environmental Protection, the government has approved the sites for the first and second reactors of the Xudabao nuclear plant in the northeastern province of Liaoning and the third and fourth reactors of the Haiyang nuclear power plant in eastern China's Shandong province.

The two plants will use AP1000 technology, a third-generation nuclear power technology from the United States. "AP1000 is a mature technology theoretically, although it has yet to be put into commercial operation," Jiang Kejuan said.

Insiders said that in China's future nuclear plants will use third-generation technologies including AP and also CAP, a technology developed in China.