China has become the fifth country in the world to develop high temperature gas-cooled nuclear reactor, which has started generating clean energy for the Chinese capital, the state media reported.

"The development of the reactor represents a major step in China's safe use of nuclear energy to resolve its energy shortage," Professor Wu Zongxin of the Nuclear Energy Technology Institute at Tsinghua University in Beijing said.

The reactor began generating power in full swing in Beijing recently and China is the fifth country in the world to master the technology for building this type of reactor, following the US, Britain, Germany and Japan, Xinhua news agency quoted Wu as saying.

Construction of the reactor began in 1995, at a total cost of 250 million yuan ($30 million). The reactor has undergone 100 safety tests since it began thermal state testing in December 2000.