China puts the brakes on its nuclear power programme

deciding not to build any inland nuclear power plants through 2015

Although China has not announced new nuclear power installed capacity targets for 2020, it is expected that targets will be adjusted downward from previous expectations. ….

China moves to strengthen nuclear safety standards and moderate the pace of its nuclear power development, Switchboard, Alvin Lin This post was co-written with my colleagues Jingjing Li, Jason Portner and Christine Xu, 23 Dec 12, .”……….. Before the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, China had been undertaking the world’s largest nuclear power plant construction program, with plans to expand its then approximately 11.5 GW of nuclear power to as much as 80 GW of nuclear capacity by 2020. (Given that current reactors are about 1 GW in size, this would be equivalent to building nearly 70 reactors over a decade.)

Following Fukushima, however, Beijing immediately suspended approval of all new nuclear power projects while it undertook a comprehensive safety review of existing and under-construction nuclear power plants, as well as research reactors and fuel cycle facilities, and developed its Twelfth Five Year Plan for Nuclear Safety……

The report concluded that operating reactors “basically fulfill” China’s nuclear safety laws and regulations and the International Atomic Energy Agency’s most recent standards, that they have the capacity to respond to design-basis accidents and severe accidents, and that safety risks are under control.

However, in spite of these conclusions, the inspection report and nuclear safety plan also identified areas for improvement. In particular, the nuclear safety plan lays out short- (by the end of 2012), mid- (by the end of 2013) and long-term (by 2015) tasks to strengthen safety for operating and under-construction plants, research reactors and fuel cycle facilities…..
In addition to the measures to improve the safety of nuclear power plant facilities, the nuclear safety plan also discusses changes needed to improve the regulation of nuclear power safety in China……

In approving these plans, China officially lifted the freeze on approving new nuclear power plants, while also deciding not to build any inland nuclear power plants through 2015 and, significantly, to require all new plants to meet higher Generation III safety standards (see English news articles here and here). Although China has not announced new nuclear power installed capacity targets for 2020, it is expected that targets will be adjusted downward from previous expectations. ….

There is still more that China can do to improve the quality of its nuclear safety regulation. A significant and common sense step would be to take its nuclear safety regulatory body out of its current position in the Ministry of Environmental Protection and to set up a new, independent regulatory body directly under the State Council or National People’s Congress, as would fit China’s political system. ….

The occurrence of one major accident would bring irreparable harm to the lives and property of Chinese citizens and the environment. It would also bring unprecedented doubt and damage to China’s nuclear industry and with it the prospects for future development of China’s nuclear power program. http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/alin/china_moves_to_strengthen_nucl.html

December 26, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized

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