China will build more nuclear power plants, with plans including extending power into inland regions, guaranteeing the safety of nuclear power development, and building one-stop nuclear fuel production bases, according to Wang Yiren, deputy director of the National Atomic Energy Agency (NAEA), who answered questions following a February 8 meeting on the
13th Five-Year Plan on Nuclear Industry’s Development, reported the
Economic Daily.
“By 2020, the installed capacity of China’s operating nuclear power plants and plants under construction will reach 88 million kilowatts,��� Wang said. Nuclear power, as a low-carbon new energy source, is seen as critical to China’s future development. Nuclear power generation, however, only accounts for about 3 percent in the country's gross power production at present, whereas the global average is 11 percent.
The plan envisages greater power, but also greater safety. The deputy director assured the audience that a Fukushima-style nuclear accident wouldn't happen in China, because the 2011 incident in Japan was the result of a combination of natural disasters and improper crisis responses.
He also claimed that the third-generation nuclear technology currently adopted by China has far better safety performance, and would restrict the impact of any accident to the site.
Wang said that to generate more nuclear power, increasing the efficiency of existing nuclear plants is vital. “China’s existing nuclear power plants are concentrated in the southeast coastal areas, but the nuclear fuel production facilities are mostly located in west China,” said Wang.
The NAEA has been working to promote the building of nuclear fuel industrial parks in the coastal areas, in a bid to create one-stop nuclear fuel production and supply base.
Wang also countered safety concerns over construction of inland nuclear power plants. Of the more than 400 nuclear power plants around the world, a majority have been built in inland regions rarely affected by tsunamis or typhoons and only a fraction are located in coastal areas, and “no matter where a plant is built, the safety requirements will be consistently followed,” he said.
He also cited the accelerating economic development of inland regions as a reason why nuclear plants should be constructed, saying that “Inland areas like central provinces of Hunan, Hubei, and Jiangxi are short of energy… Developing nuclear power may be a good choice.”
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