Public opposition defuses nuclear plans(3)

The lack of information about the project led many residents to mistakenly believe that a nuclear power station was to be built, rather than a fuel-processing plant, according to Han.

"At such a sensitive time, it was hard for most people to believe that the project would not pose a threat to the environment, even though the government reiterated the importance of safety of construction and operation," Han added.

Neither CGNPC nor CNNC has commented publicly about how projects such as this will be handled in future.

An ideal location

Heshan is an ideal place to process nuclear fuel, given its close proximity to nuclear power stations in South China's coastal area, according to CNNC sources.

By contrast, the two existing nuclear fuel-processing plants are located in the downtown areas of Baotou city in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region and Yibin city in Sichuan province.

The NDRC rules came into being after several large projects were halted in the past few years as a result of vocal opposition from residents. For example, in October, a decision was taken to shelve plans to build a 55.8 billion-yuan petrochemical plant in Ningbo, Zhejiang province. The decision to halt the Zhejiang refinery was, to some extent, connected with the requirements set by the NDRC, according to local officials.

"The fact that the public opposed the project was a sign that the evaluation process was inadequate," said Han.

Early reports said that the project was still in the early-planning stage and the Ningbo government had planned to conduct an environmental impact assessment and a public survey on the risk to social stability.

Although the local government said the project had met "the most stringent discharge standards and would not pose a threat to the environment", residents demonstrated for days because they were concerned about the potential for pollution.

In a separate incident, the NDRC ordered the developers of a planned steel mill in Anhui province to conduct a social stability risk assessment, even though an environmental assessment had been completed and the project was well on the way to being given the green light.

Prior to the new NDRC regulations, which only apply to top-level investment projects, some local governments had already introduced similar rules.

For example, the authorities in Guangdong introduced a similar mechanism in 2011, requiring that proposals for large local projects must always include an assessment of the risk to social stability.

The southern province has seen a decline in mass disturbances in the past two years, and now only around 1,500 such cases occur annually, according to sources with the Guangdong political and legislative affairs committee.

Mass disturbances are often sparked by plans for the construction of large projects, the committee said.

According to the Guangdong regulations, local governments are required to conduct a survey of the risk to social stability - including an assessment of the likelihood of mass disturbances, the numbers expected to be involved and the scale of possible disturbances - before major policies and reform measures are announced or construction work begins on key projects.

In 2011 alone, 54 key policies and 36 large projects were suspended in Guangdong after being assessed as posing a high risk to social stability, according to sources with the local political and legislative authority.

"Guangdong has taken the lead in the introduction of this sort of assessment mechanism. After all, the province has witnessed a number of mass incidents in the past few years," said Han.

In 2009, plans to build a garbage incinerator in the Panyu district of Guangzhou were dropped after large-scale protests by residents concerned about the possible environmental impact.

Following the NDRC's new rules, several other provinces and municipalities, including the coal-rich province of Shanxi and the megacity of Chongqing, have announced similar rules for local investment projects, said sources with the local governments.

"Regulations such as these are a big step forward. But some confusion remains as to how these social risk assessments should be carried out and which government agency should be responsible for conducting them," said Han.

"In addition to the social risk assessment, local governments should better inform the public about proposed large projects before making a final decision."