China poised to resume nuclear power projects

(Ecns.cn) – China appears ready to resume approval procedures and construction of new nuclear power plants that have been suspended since the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan last year, with officials maintaining that the country is still determined to develop nuclear power, according to the Southern Weekly.

During the two top political sessions that concluded this month, the task of improving energy efficiency was written into the annual government work report, and included the safe and effective development of nuclear power.

Moreover, many officials have shown support for the safe and peaceful use of nuclear technology, claiming it is still a strategically important solution to tackle the country's future energy problems.

Fueled by such a positive consensus, shares of Chinese nuclear power companies saw a solid upward trend in the past weeks, indicating a growing confidence in the industry.

Industry perks up

Following the Fukushima crisis, China suspended approval of all new nuclear power projects and launched nationwide safety inspections both at operational power stations and facilities still under construction.

Work on the country's nuclear power plants has now begun to revive, and it is very likely that China will resume approval of new nuclear projects this year, revealed Sun Qin, president of the China National Nuclear Corp (CNNC), the nation's largest atomic plant operator, on Sunday.

The Fukushima accident has been a rare example in the history of existing nuclear power plants, Sun told Xinhua during an interview on the sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit held in Seoul between March 26 and March 27. The low-possibility, high-consequence incident has taught us major lessons and dealt a heavy blow to the world's development of nuclear power, but the notion of the safe and peaceful use of nuclear power technology should not be changed, he added.

In fact, despite the absence of formal approvals, some nuclear power plant operators have already been making preparations for construction since the end of last year.

In December 2011, the Harbin Power Equipment Corp (HPEC), one of the three largest nuclear power equipment manufacturers in China, secured contracts with the China Nuclear Engineering Corp (CNEC) and the Jiangsu Nuclear Power Corp (JNPC) in which the HPEC will provide T&G (turbines and generators) for AP1000 nuclear power projects at the Tianwan Nuclear Power Plant in east China's Jiangsu Province. This March, the HPEC also won orders from the Shandong Haiyang Nuclear Power Plant for the same type of equipment, noted the Southern Weekly.

The equipment manufacturers are usually more sensitive to business opportunities, and the growing number of orders suggests that the resumption of approvals can be expected, said Li Ning, professor and deputy director of the Berkeley Nuclear Research Center at the University of California, Berkeley.

Safer nuclear energy?

Since the Fukushima accident, countries with nuclear facilities have all heightened their vigilance, stepped up disaster-resistance measures and exercised extreme caution in developing new nuclear plants.

Earlier this month, it was revealed that the Chinese government had completed a safety review in which inspectors had found 14 problems that needed to be rectified and improved, said Wang Binghua, chairman of the State Nuclear Power Technology Corp (SNPTC).

Some of the problems have already been solved and the rest will be solved within three years, noted Wang, who also mentioned that the country's medium and long-term nuclear plans would be further improved.

Wang promised that the Chinese government will not approve any new nuclear projects that do not contain necessary emergency measures before the problems identified in the review have been solved.

Last month, the China Electricity Council (CEC) said in a report that the country's power usage will rise to 2.44 trillion to 2.47 trillion kilowatt hours during the first six months of this year, with a possible power supply shortage of 10 to 20 million kilowatts occurring before the peak summer season.

On March 14, the CEC mentioned in another report that China must continue to develop its nuclear power industry in the future due to the increasing demand for electricity, and that the country's installed nuclear power capacity is expected to reach 80 million kilowatts by 2020.

This target is achievable with caution, and it is very likely that the capacity will eventually reach between 70 million and 90 million kilowatts by the end of 2020, Li Ning was cited by the Southern Weekly.

Technological upgrades

According to Wang Binghua, China has had a very good plan for nuclear power development and sophisticated supporting policies that emphasize the use of the most advanced technology, as well as the most stringent safety standards for developing nuclear power.

In the past year, while construction of new nuclear plants was in deep freeze, many companies such as the China National Nuclear Corp (CNNC) and the China Guangdong Nuclear Power Corp (CGNPC) have been working on advancing their technologies from second generation to third generation, or AP1000.

In addition, the three largest nuclear power equipment manufacturers in China, including the HPEC, the Shanghai Electric Group Corp and the Dongfang Electric Corp, have all made innovations in the development of nuclear power and are now capable of making advanced AP1000 reactor units on their own.

Currently, China has 15 nuclear power plants with varied capacities, all using improved second-generation technologies, according to the Southern Weekly. However, of the 26 reactors under construction, there are only six with AP1000 reactors.