THE disgraced president of a Chinese state-owned enterprise has been sentenced to prison for 20 years for leaking state secrets in connection with a bid for foreign-made nuclear reactors.

Jiang Xinsheng was charged with disclosing information to France's Areva, the world's largest builder of nuclear reactors, about a 2004 bid for China's inland nuclear program, according to Caijing magazine.

An Areva spokesperson in France, asked for comment, said: "Areva considers that there is no basis to these allegations." China has not accused Areva of any wrongdoing.

Court officials, reached by telephone, declined to comment.

A Beijing court convicted and sentenced Jiang, a former president of China National Technical Import and Export Corp, which builds power plants, last month on charges of leaking state secrets and accepting bribes, two sources told Reuters. They requested anonymity.

Caijing, an influential Chinese business publication, reported Jiang's detention in 2008, but his fate since then had not been disclosed.

US-based Westinghouse, controlled by Japan's Toshiba Corp, signed an agreement with China in 2006 to build four AP1000 reactors in the eastern coastal provinces of Shandong and Zhejiang. Westinghouse beat Areva in a tight two-way contest.

Westinghouse won after agreeing to a technology transfer deal that would make the untested AP1000 technology the basis for China's own-brand third-generation reactor.

China is planning a massive push into nuclear power in an effort to wean itself off coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel.

It now has 12 working reactors with 10.15 gigawatts of total generating capacity.

China's nuclear capacity target for 2020 remains 40 GW, less than 5 percent of its current installed electricity generating capacity.

However, officials said China is considering raising the goal to 80 GW or more for 2020.

• enterprise [´entəpraiz] n.企业；雄心；胆识 (初中英语单词)
• connection [kə´nekʃən] n.联系；关系；联运 (初中英语单词)
• program [´prəugræm] n.说明v.为...安排节目 (初中英语单词)
• comment [´kɔment] n.&v.评论；评注；注意 (初中英语单词)
• import [im´pɔ:t, ´impɔ:t] vt.&n.进口；输入 (初中英语单词)
• export [ik´spɔ:t] vt.&n.输出，出口 (初中英语单词)
• agreement [ə´gri:mənt] n.同意；一致；协议 (初中英语单词)
• contest [kən´test, ´kɔntest] v.争辩 n.争夺；竞赛 (初中英语单词)
• transfer [træns´fə:] v.&n.迁移；调动；转让 (初中英语单词)
• working [´wə:kiŋ] a.工人的；劳动的 (初中英语单词)
• capacity [kə´pæsiti] n.容量；智能；能力 (初中英语单词)
• builder [´bildə] n.建筑者；创造者 (高中英语单词)
• inland [´inlənd, in´lænd] a.&n.内地的 ad.在内地 (高中英语单词)
• technical [´teknikəl] a.技术的；专门性的 (高中英语单词)
• influential [,influ´enʃəl] a.有力的，有影响的 (高中英语单词)
• publication [,pʌbli´keiʃən] n.发表；公布；发行 (高中英语单词)
• massive [´mæsiv] a.厚实的；魁伟的 (高中英语单词)
• electricity [i,lek´trisiti] n.电；电学；电流 (高中英语单词)
• fossil [´fɔsəl] n.老顽固 a.化石的 (英语四级单词)
• considering [kən´sidəriŋ] prep.就...而论 (英语四级单词)