The story
The Ministry of Nuclear Industry built China's first atom bomb, hydrogen bomb and nuclear submarine. It functioned as a government bureau for the national nuclear industry and reported directly to the State Council. It oversaw China's nuclear-related corporations, manufacturers, institutions, research institutes, and plants, including those related to nuclear weapons. It was responsible for the design and operation of nuclear power plants; nuclear fuel production and supply, including the processing of natural uranium, uranium conversion and enrichment, fuel assembly fabrication, spent fuel reprocessing, and nuclear waste disposal.
In 1988 the Ministry of Nuclear Industry was re-organised and became the CNNC. The corporatization was partly carried out to gain funds from outside of the government via exports.
In the mid-1990s, CNNC had 300,000 employees and managed 200 organisations.
Kang Rixin, a senior general manager is currently being investigated (as of August 10, 2009) for $260 million that was earmarked for the construction of three nuclear plants and allegedly used the funds for the stock market sustaining heavy losses. He is also accused of accepting bribes from a foreign company that intended to build nuclear power stations in China.
As of 2014 CNNC has 100,000 employees and 110 subsidiaries. It has 4 nuclear power plants with 9 reactors in operation with a generation capacity of 6.5 GWe, with a further 12 reactors under construction.
In June 2015, CNNC announced it would aim to raise 13.19 billion Chinese yuan in an initial public offering, that if successful, would be the largest in China in almost four years previously. In September 2015, CNNC signed a memorandum of understanding with Bill Gates-backed TerraPower for the construction of a traveling wave reactor.
In September, CNNC announced a project with the UK's National Nuclear Laboratory to create the Joint Research and Innovation Centre. The centre will investigate aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle. The UK and China will jointly fund the project over five years at the cost of £50 million.
As of 2017, CNNC was developing a 400 MWth heat-only reactor for district heating.
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In 2018, CNNC acquired nuclear power plant builder China Nuclear Engineering & Construction Corp (CNECC).
It is one of the two most significant companies in China's uranium mining and nuclear power sectors (the other being China General Nuclear Power Group). CNNC is supervised by the State Council via the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission.
U.S. sanctions
In August 2020, the United States Department of Defense published the names of companies linked to the People's Liberation Army operating directly or indirectly in the United States. CNNC and CNECC were included on the list. In November 2020, Donald Trump issued an executive order prohibiting any American company or individual from owning shares in companies that the United States Department of Defense has listed as having links to the People's Liberation Army, which included the two companies above.
From Wikipedia’s article on China National Nuclear Corporation, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3