Local people protest $15 bln China-France plant
Local authorities announced Wednesday the suspension of a joint China-France 100 billion yuan ($15 billion) nuclear fuel recycling project in the wake of days of protests from local residents who fear possible environmental and health hazards.
Authorities in Lianyungang, East China's Jiangsu Province, said on their Sina Weibo account that "The preliminary work of the nuclear fuel recycling project's site selection is suspended."
Lianyugang officials declined to make further comment on why the project was suspended.
"Suspension means we've just stopped for now; we don't know if this project will be reinstated," a media officer from the city government's publicity department told the Global Times Wednesday.
According to an article on the website of CNNC Nuclear Fuel Reprocessing Co, a Beijing-based company under the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), the fuel recycling project is jointly run by the CNNC and France's Areva. The project aims to be able to deal with an annual 800 tons of nuclear fuel waste, and construction of the facility is expected to begin in 2020.
Although the project is only in the preliminary stages, with a number of sites under consideration, an article on nuclear energy website nuclear.net.cn claiming the most likely location would be Lianyungang caused huge waves among local people, after it went viral on social media.
Large protests against the potential project started Saturday, and by Monday, 10,000 people had become involved, gathering at a local square. There were some physical confrontations between protesters and the police, said one protester, who asked for anonymity.
The local public security bureau stated on Sina Weibo on Monday that online rumors saying police had used violence against some protesters and even killed one were false.
"We want the plant to be completely stopped instead of suspended. That means they can get it going again whenever they want," said one of the protesters, surnamed Zhang.
He said the protests were held mainly out of concerns that radioactive nuclear materials might damage the environment and people's health, especially their children.
"Lianyungang already has a nuclear power station. It's not safe to have another nuclear recycling project besieging us," Zhang said.
The first two reactors at Tianwan nuclear power station, located in Tianwan, Lianyungang started operating in 2007, with a further six reactors planned.
Total capacity is expected to reach 70 billion kilowatt-hours a year when they are fully put into use, the Xinhua News Agency reported in January 2016.
