China’s government has made changes in its policy on nuclear power that will likely result in a scaling back of ambitious plans for building new plants, an industry official said in comments reported yesterday by state media.
The announcement came as Japan struggles to control a nuclear plant that was crippled by an earthquake and tsunami earlier this month, but there was no announcement that the change was prompted by that disaster.
Beijing is promoting nuclear power to curb surging demand for oil and gas, but analysts say the industry’s rapid growth is straining China’s ability to supply equipment and technicians.
Recent policy changes are likely to result in a reduction of about 10 gigawatts in nuclear generating capacity from the 90 gigawatts previously expected to be built by 2020, China Electricity Council (CEC) deputy director Wei Zhaofeng (魏昭峰) said, according to newspapers.
Government plans called for nuclear to supply up to 5 percent of China’s power by 2020, but Wei said that was likely to be closer to 3 percent due to the policy changes. The reports by the China Business News, China Daily and other newspapers gave no details of the changes.
Employees who answered the phone at the CEC, the group for China’s power utilities, declined to confirm Wei made the comments or give any details or their names.
The Chinese government is in the midst of finalizing a blueprint for nuclear power development over the next five years and yesterday’s reports suggested officials might be more conservative after a decade of aggressively expanding the industry.
The Cabinet suspended new approvals for nuclear plants just five days after the March 11 disaster in Japan. However, the nuclear safety director of China’s Environmental Protection Ministry, Tian Jiashu (田佳樹), said in a statement on Saturday the government had faith in its technology and would go ahead with expansion plans.
Wei said China should “pay a high degree of attention to nuclear power safety” in light of the Japanese disaster, according to the China Business News.
The Japanese disaster might prompt Chinese officials to be more conservative about their nuclear plans but the technology still will play a key role in energy plans, said Xianfang Ren, China economist for IHS Global Insight.
“The country has basically been at its top capacity building nuclear power plants in the past few years, which is causing shortage in supply of nuclear equipment and technicians,” Ren said in a report. “There is a likelihood that policymakers may take a more conservative approach in the short term, taking into account both the safety issue and the supply constraint for nuclear power plant equipment and technicians.”
China currently has 13 nuclear reactors that provide about 10 gigawatts of generating capacity and plans call for expanding that to about 40 gigawatts by 2015. If the government sticks to its earlier target for 2020, that would give China the world’s biggest installed nuclear generation capacity.
Beijing says it is reviewing safety at China’s nuclear plants following the disaster at Japan’s Fukushima Dai-ichi complex. Few details have been released but state television said last week technicians were assessing safeguards at the coastal Daya Bay nuclear plant north of Hong Kong, including sea walls to shield against a tsunami.
Beijing is promoting nuclear, wind, solar and other alternative energy sources as part of efforts to curb surging demand for imported oil and gas and to reduce environmental damage from heavy reliance on coal. Its latest economic plan calls for alternative sources to supply at least 11.4 percent of China’s power by 2015.
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