China is aiming to have more than 110 nuclear power plants by 2030, more than the U.S. Under this drive, many are advocating that construction work on inland nuclear power plants, which was suspended after the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan, should be restarted. However, public fear of nuclear accidents persists.
If one drives down the highway into the mountainous region of Taohuajiang in Yiyang, Central China's Hunan Province, one will come across a humble plant, surrounded by water sitting tucked away amidst the peaks.
The patch of former farmland was taken over by the China National Nuclear Power Corporation (CNNPC) several years ago to build China's first inland nuclear power plant.
While the billions of yuan planned for this project has given it advanced technology to work with, since it started about a decade ago it has not generated a single spark.
Every time Xia Weibing, a local, passes by and sees the site, he wonders when they will resume work on it. "It's a good thing if it poses no safety risks," he said.
"They have finished the preliminary works there, including building the highway, which used to be a dirt road. I think they won't just leave it this way," said Xia.
In the aftermath of the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan, the Chinese government slowed its work on nuclear power plants and Taohuajiang's construction came to a full stop. But given the government's plans to expand "clean" energy sources and its pledge to peak CO2 emissions by 2030, nuclear power seems alluring again.
"According to the 13th Five-year Plan which aims to build an expected capacity of 58 million kilowatts by 2020, we need to build several nuclear power plants each year and it's a heavy workload. Work on suspended inland power plants, including Taohuajiang, should be resumed," said Zhou Dadi, vice director of the China Energy Research Society.
In March's national two legislative sessions, members from the Hunan delegation proposed the plant's construction be resumed this year. Also in March, local officials and the Taohuajiang plant manager set up a "group" to promote the plant, though how they will do this remains unclear. Meanwhile, the CNNPC is trying to dispel locals' fear about the plant by holding "educational" activities.
Despite governments' and companies' efforts to soothe the public's fear, many ordinary citizens do not want nuclear plants built near their communities, fearful of potential accidents and nuclear leaks.
Mixed opinions
In February, a 3.2-magnitude earthquake hit Taohuajiang. Liu Zhipeng, whose hometown is less than 10 kilometers away from the first phase of the plant site, says this is good news. "The construction of the plant may be stopped forever because of the earthquake," he said.
Later the Ministry of Environmental Protection said that the earthquake will not influence the plant.
There are more than 1,000 members of Liu's clan living in the area. "I don't worry about myself. I am concerned the plant will have a bad influence on future generations. I can't imagine what will happen to our land and people once nuclear leaks happen," he said.
Liu has a friend whose land was taken to build the power plant and he was promised a sum of money as compensation. "Last time I saw him, he said that he did not get the full compensation as the construction has slowed. I don't know what's going on with him now."
The WeChat account of Hunan Taohuajiang Nuclear Power Corporation (HTNPC) posted an article on April 13 which described the visit of local environmental NGO Green Hunan to visit the site, implying that the environmentalists and the nuclear power firm have the same goal.
However, a Green Hunan staff member told the Global Times that "the article doesn't represent our attitude. We have asked them to remove it." She declined to make any further comment on the nuclear power issue.
According to an article published in China Economic Weekly, several locals living near the suspended Xiaomoshan nuclear plant in Hunan said as long as the government compensates them properly for any land that is seized, they don't care about the plant. They said they don't worry about nuclear security, admitting that they know nothing about the potential risks.
Zhou said that he has been to several nuclear power plant sites in rural regions. The locals told him that they are welcoming the plants because they will help boost local economy.
"Different people have different opinions about the nuclear power plant. There can't be unification," said Zhang Qiaoyan, who used to be a middle school teacher in Cangnan township, East China's Zhejiang Province, future home of the San'ao Nuclear Power Plant.
Zhang first got to know about the San'ao plant through her student who posted articles about it on WeChat. The student, according to Zhang, went to Shanghai but couldn't find a good job. She later secured a job writing publicity pieces for the San'ao plant. "She is happy about it and thinks it's a good thing," Zhang said.
"But for me, a naturalist, this is a disaster. It's hard to imagine how the landscape is going to be ruined due to the nuclear power plant," she added.
