"Construction of the station will begin once we have received approval, and will take five years to complete," Zhao Hua, head of the Nuclear Power Institute of China, was quoted as saying by the state-run China Daily.
The project would come up at Sanba village which a team of experts visited last year and reported that its geological structure was sound, he said.
The site is to the east of Chengdu, the provincial capital of Sichuan whose western areas were ravaged by the 8-magnitude temblor on May 12 that has killed nearly 70,000 people and left several thousands more missing in the deadliest natural disaster in 30 years.
"There were no signs of any subsidence or landslips," Zhao said.
Sichuan's 68 per cent of energy needs are met by hydropower but it still experiences shortages in the dry season, Li Chongxi, Deputy Secretary of Sichuan's Provincial Committee of the Communist Party, said.
More From This Section
Sichuan is home to the Nuclear Power Institute of China, the southwest Electric Power Design Institute, Dongfang Electric and Yibin Nuclear fuel plant.
The province has "all the right conditions" for development of nuclear power, he added.