China has 21 nuclear reactors under construction which will have a capacity for generating more than 21 gigawatts of electricity, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. That is two and a half times more nuclear reactors under construction than any other country.
I love that China is not planning to power all future demand with more coal and gas.
Our aversion to nuclear energy PR wise has been a disaster. It’s very difficult for the general public to fully buy into nuclear power with all the misinformation spread about it. Hope we start to slowly veer back towards it.
But it’s not the general public who is averse to nuclear, they’re as a whole, probably more in favour of it. The current Swedish governmrnt campaigned on it. It’s nuclear companies themselves. Which is partially why Sweden suddenly and quietly scrapped their plans.
It’s nuclear companies themselves who don’t want it.
Wait what why?
It’s not profitable. For example, in Sweden, the companies involved aren’t interested. There was talk of EDF being restructured a couple of years back separating the unprofitable nuclear away from their other businesses (until state bailout and investment). Their CFO resigned over their decision to carry on building UK’s latest nuclear powerplant. The Conservatives only pushed through the UK’s next nuclear powerplant only after giving EDF assurances and ability to start taking in profits before the completion of the project.
This is what it takes to build nuclear. A lot of state money… Whereas renewables are cheaper, easier, and faster to decarbonise.
Okay but how’s their safety?
Probably on par with how the other safety stuff in the country is. Bad, not talked about, and actively suppressed if discovered.
I’ve got no reason to believe they’re doing anything dangerous. I found this piece which indicates that they did a review in the wake of Fukushima. Sounds like things were adequate but they also found things to improve. Do you have reason to believe China is not taking safety seriously in there nuclear energy program?
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. In June 2012, after gaining approval of the State Council in principle, the National Nuclear Safety Administration released drafts of the Nuclear Safety Plan (Chinese here) and the “Report on Safety Inspection of National Civilian Nuclear Facilities” (Chinese here) for public comment.
As discussed in the Safety Inspection report, the safety inspection took over 9 months and covered 11 areas of safety, including site selection and external event evaluation; flood and earthquake resistance capacity; extreme natural disaster prevention and protection; electricity blackouts and emergency plans; severe accident prevention and mitigation; environmental monitoring systems; and emergency response system effectiveness.
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.
China’s safety record in other energy sectors is poor. This is presumably not on purpose. What reason is there to believe it will be better at managing nuclear?
Do you have reason to believe China is not taking safety seriously in there nuclear energy program?
If the China government were doing the wrong thing, would Chinese scientists and engineers be safe to say so, or would they be subject to imprisonment and torture for disagreeing with their political superiors?
Without freedom of political speech there is no freedom to tell the truth on matters of political controversy. This includes environmental and safety issues.
It goes the other way too. The Chinese government harshly punishes those who take dangerous shortcuts that undermine public safety and trust. The 2008 baby formula scandal comes to mind, which led to the execution of two executives for their crimes.
Anyway, nuclear power has proven to be very safe under all types of government. To say that it would somehow be less safe in China is maybe just a little bit sinophobic.
That’s kind of true, but the Chinese government is probably competent enough to not mess with nuclear safety.
I get it, you don’t like China. They’re still a big player in global emissions and I’m still glad they’re not meeting their complete energy demand with coal/ng. You should be too.
The ability of chinese scientists and engineers to act in their roles without interference from the state is offtopic. If you want to talk about that, go make a thread about it.
ability of chinese scientists and engineers to act in their roles without interference from the state
In a discussion about plant safety that is relevant, surely.
The only reported incident has been from one of the European designed EPR reactors, which had a faulty fuel cladding that released some radioactive steam within the system.
Other than that, they’ve been pretty good. The main reason the reactors are safe is because we’ve designed them, especially with post-Fukushima improvements, to have a lot of passive safety built in by default.
Post-Fukushima improvements include, in addition to baseline passive nuclear safety, things like being able to take direct strikes from artillery without melting down. That’s also in addition to the natural disaster proofing we’ve done for earthquakes, floods and tsunamis. We’ve generally done a good job of over-engineering our reactors so that we can minimize any potential disasters.
Great to see nuclear is being talked about more as an option than something to be scared of.
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It’s still overall, a small part of their grid. They don’t have plans to expand their nuclear fleet all too much. A good chunk are experimental, and for military research.
Not sure what this has to do with the price of tea there
Overall, probably cheaper, as it requires less tax to help pay for the cost of nuclear infrastructure.
Placating the populace (ie, averting a revolution) is the CCP’s main objective. Civil unrest is the number one thing that keeps Chinese officials up at night.
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Renewables?
@Arcturus nice pfp
