Companies signed 12.5 billion yuan ($1.74 billion) worth of investment agreements to aid the development of the nuclear energy industry in Guangdong province at a conference on Wednesday.

The agreements, which are expected to fuel growth in the region's sector, include nine joint research and development deals, and seven that signal intention to invest.

Representatives from more than 160 nuclear energy companies and industrial chains from around the country attended the conference, which was organized by the Guangdong Provincial Development and Reform Commission and China General Nuclear Power Group.

Yang Changli, chairman of CGN, said that by relying on the construction of various nuclear power projects, the group has achieved the large-scale application of advanced construction technology and has accumulated more than 90 new technologies and products for operation and maintenance over the years, including 19 that have broken foreign monopolies, effectively supporting the high-quality development of Guangdong's nuclear energy industry.

CGN is now the country's largest nuclear power plant operator by installed capacity. The company has invested more than 380 billion yuan in constructing nuclear power and related projects in Guangdong over the past four decades.

According to a report in Nanfang Daily, based in the provincial capital Guangzhou, Guangdong is actively promoting the preliminary work for a number of new nuclear projects.

It is expected that by 2060, the installed capacity of nuclear power in Guangdong will exceed 60 million kilowatts, accounting for more than 12 percent of the province's total installed power, the report said.

Nuclear industrial development is expected to bring more than 2 trillion yuan in new investment to Guangdong, providing a broad market for the nuclear energy industry and bringing valuable development opportunities to nuclear energy companies in the following years, it said.

The province has built three nuclear power bases, and another four are either under construction or have been approved, said the report, adding that it still has a lot of space for new sites.

The nuclear energy industry is key to the global manufacturing industry, representing new quality productive forces with strong technological spillover effects, and it has played an important role in cultivating new drivers of economic development and building a strong manufacturing province, the report said.

Guangdong, which started developing its nuclear power industry in the 1980s, has taken the lead in nuclear power industrial development in the country.

It has built nuclear power projects in Shenzhen, Yangjiang, Taishan, Huizhou, Lianjiang and Lufeng. The Shenzhen Daya Bay Nuclear Power Plant, the first large-scale commercial nuclear power plant on the mainland, was put into operation in 1994.

Guangdong has a nuclear power installed capacity of 16.14 million kilowatts, accounting for more than 28 percent of China's total, ranking first in the country.

During the 14th-Five-Year Plan period (2021-25), the province's annual generation of nuclear power exceeded 120 billion kilowatt-hours, accounting for about 8 percent of the province's installed power capacity and contributing about 16 percent of its power generation.