Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumChina aims to become world's top nuclear power producer by 2030
The government plans to make nuclear power a pillar of its economic policy and increase support for related government organizations and industries. Under previous five-year plans, Chinese authorities approved construction of three to five reactors a year.
According to the European Nuclear Society, China is now the world's fifth-largest nuclear power producer in terms of capacity, after the U.S., France, Japan and Russia. The Xi government aims to make China the world's top generator in terms of both capacity and number of reactors by 2030.
Under the next five-year plan, China's nuclear power capacity is to triple by 2020, compared with the end of 2014, reaching 58,000 megawatts and matching that of France. By 2030, China is expected to have more than 110 nuclear reactors in operation, exceeding the number in the U.S.
http://asia.nikkei.com/Politics-Economy/Policy-Politics/China-aims-to-become-world-s-top-nuclear-power-producer-by-2030
Binkie The Clown
(7,911 posts)And we all know their track record on pollution.
FBaggins
(26,783 posts)This is China improving their track record on pollution.
By 2040 they could be approaching 200 GWs worth of nuclear capacity. That's quite a bit of coal/oil/gas waste not produced.
Binkie The Clown
(7,911 posts)More nuke plants = more nuclear waste = more irresponsible stockpiling of dangerous crap nobody knows how to get rid of safely = more Chernobyls and more Fukashimas.
Or maybe I'm wrong, and maybe unicorns do fart perfume.
kristopher
(29,798 posts)No other country has built an express network, and the trains to run on it, so fast, and the system still has far to go to prove it as safe as any other
PUBLISHED : Sunday, 25 August, 2013
http://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/technology/article/1299188/chinas-high-speed-rail-programme-case-too-far-too-fast
Authorities accused of muzzling media coverage after crash in Zhejiang province kills at least 38 people and injures 192
Chinese authorities face growing public fury over the high-speed train crash that killed at least 38 people and injured 192, with the disposal of wreckage and attempts to control coverage of the incident prompting allegations of a cover-up....
And if that seemed like fury, just wait until a nuclear meltdown takes out a city or two. What then will happen to all of that investment?
Wed, 08/19/2015 - 4:21pm
Andy Szal, Digital Reporter
Residents demanding compensation for damages to their homes after an explosion at the Tianjin port protest outside a hotel where media press conferences are held in northeastern China's Tianjin municipality Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2015. The blasts originated at a warehouse for hazardous material, where 700 tons of sodium cyanide a toxic chemical that can form combustible substances on contact with water was being stored in amounts that violated safety rules. (AP Photo/Paul Traynor)
Massive explosions in one of China's largest cities could be the result of significant political corruption and safety loopholes in the country's chemical industry.
http://www.chem.info/news/2015/08/chemical-industry-corruption-safety-violations-preceded-deadly-chinese-explosion
...Recognizing that rampant collusion between local officials and private mine owners is the main reason for poor safety conditions in China's coal mines, the central government has stepped-up efforts to root out this corruption....
http://www.worldwatch.org/china-tackling-corruption-safety-concerns-coal-production
By Lijia Zhang, Special for CNN
Wed October 23, 2013
...Much as I appreciate our president's determination, his battle feels like an attempt to "put out a big fire with a glass of water," given how corruption has reached every corner of our society....
http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/23/opinion/china-corrution-lijia-zhang/
By Fan Yu, Epoch Times | May 17, 2015
...CNNPC officials were recently implicated in several corruption cases. Chinas Central Discipline Inspection Commissions weekly bulletin released May 10 showed that 12 corruption cases were reported at CNNPC.
Four executives at a finance subsidiary of CNNPC allegedly set up slush funds to finance personal expenditures such as overseas travel, consumer cards, and other benefits. The four executives were downgraded to low-level positions at the company.
As CNNPC transitions from a state-owned company to a publicly listed company subject to more transparency and regulatory oversight, such corruption cases could become a drag on the companys financial performance.
Another potential issue lies with CNNPCs parent company CNNC, which will still retain 70 percent ownership post-IPO. CNNC, according to its website, is the main body of the national nuclear technology industry, the core of the national strategic nuclear deterrence and the main force of the national nuclear power development and nuclear power construction.
In other words, CNNC retains military research and production mandates, and its relationship with CNNPC means that its nuclear generation capabilities could have dual-application in military and civilian usage. This could violate the international nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which China signed and ratified.
For potential investors, perhaps more worrisome than corruption are risks inherent within Chinas nuclear industry....
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/1359866-china-national-nuclear-readies-for-ipo/
If you aren't concerned yet, I can easily document a great number of other specific cases implicating safety problems in their nuclear effort.
GliderGuider
(21,088 posts)Not to mention the toxic waste that comes from churning out the world's solar panels?
Seriously, the concept of "externality" appears to be even more foreign to the Chinese power hierarchy than to the American corporo-Republican one.
FBaggins
(26,783 posts)I have it on good authority that they're just going to finish the plants that were "in the pipeline" five years ago and then China is done with nuclear power.
They should be done any day now. Right?