The early stage of coordination of Moscow and Beijing Positions on the construction of the Nuclear power plant (1982–1991)

According to the appraisal of the Chinese experts, the “Tianwan” nuclear power station, that has been constructed with the application of the Russian equipment and with the Russian Federation technical support, is the biggest in the world if we take into consideration № 7 and № 8 energy units, that would enter service in 2026 and 2027. The process of positions coordination between the two parties has started already in 1982 and was a very complicated and even dramatic one. We have to point out that, thanks to the leading Russian participants of the Project, we do understand quite well how the Russian position on the project has evolved and how the negotiations with the PRC were executed after the breakdown of the Soviet Union. At the same time, we know almost nothing about the development of this project during the Soviet period. This article is aimed at filling in that blanc space to a certain extent. Our main source was the dairy of the PRC State council premier Li Peng (1928–2019) that was devoted to the PRC nuclear energy development. Other diaries of the Chinese prime – minister, devoted to several specific topics, were also utilized.