China will start constructing five nuclear power plants (NPPs) this year, part of an effort to dramatically expand its nuclear power capacity by 2020, officials said yesterday.

The five NPPs will be located in Sanmen in Zhejiang province, Haiyang and Rongcheng in Shandong province, Taishan in Guangdong province, and Changjiang in Hainan province, Sun Qin, vice-minister of the National Energy Administration, said, without revealing the total costs.

"The first unit of Sanmen NPP started construction on Sunday and signaled China's nuclear power industry has sped up," Sun said.