China goes nuclear

China goes nuclear as economy booms
BENJAMIN ROBERTSON IN BEIJING

CHINA will build 32 nuclear power plants over the next 15 years in an effort to meet the country's ever-increasing energy needs - more than doubling its reliance on the controversial source, the government announced yesterday.

While Britain agonises over the environmental impact of constructing a new generation of nuclear plants to address an expanding reliance on imported energy sources and reduce emissions, China is forging ahead with its ambitious plans to harness the power of the atom.

Announcing the decision at an energy conference in Shanghai, Shen Wenquan, deputy chief of the science and technology committee of China National Nuclear Corporation, said that between two to three one million kilowatt nuclear generating units would have to be launched each year until 2020.

The country has nine nuclear reactors in operation and the expansion plan would see reliance on nuclear power rise from a present-day 2.3 per cent to about 5 per cent, with an even greater share possible.

With China home to seven of the world's ten most polluted cities, and reliant upon often unlicensed coalmines feeding power stations for approximately 70 per cent of its energy needs, some experts welcomed the move to nuclear as an environmentally friendly alternative. Chinese mines are also among the most dangerous in the world, claiming 6,000 lives a year.

"Given that China will be using coal for the next 50 to 70 years it is important to develop alternative energy sources as soon as possible," said Alexander Neill of the London based Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies.

In contrast to the developed world, where concerns over how to store waste and fears of accidents are paramount in the siting of nuclear plants, Chinese local governments tend to play up the presence of a nuclear facility in their area by promoting it as a source of local pride and a wealth generator.

One reason behind this may be to avoid the controversy that has come to dog the construction of hydroelectric dams in the country. While they are also touted as a cleaner alternative to burning fossil fuels, the forced relocation of sometimes hundreds of thousands of people that comes with such massive projects has generated local unrest and caused widespread concern within China.

"It is essential to exploit nuclear energy as hydropower resources are limited and thermal power is not so environmentally-friendly," said Ma Songde, the deputy minister of science and technology.

At the same time, say energy analysts, growing worldwide concern about the future of oil is prompting both China and the West to reevaluate their stance on nuclear fuels.

"About 70 per cent of oil is produced in potentially unstable countries. Long term the cost of finding and extracting oil is increasing while the life of oil fields is declining. It makes sense to diversify," James Brook, an energy adviser to the Chinese government, recently told a meeting of foreign journalists in Beijing.

Committing £29 billion to the project, the Chinese government says it will be utilising homegrown technology that is "safer" than existing plant designs and could put China at the forefront of nuclear technology.

After studying designs from France, Russia and the United States the first reactor using so-called "pebble-bed" technology will begin construction this year in the coastal Shandong province, and is expected to start producing electricity by 2010.

Initially a German technology experimented with during the Cold War, "pebble-bed" is promoted as being both meltdown and proliferation proof.

Powered by uranium balls wrapped in layers of silicon carbide, ceramic metal and graphite, designers say that if something went wrong in the reactor shut-down process, the coating would contain the radioactive uranium because its melting point is higher than temperatures inside the reactor are able to reach.

In addition, cooled by inert helium, rather than water, which contains potentially explosive oxygen, the theory is that it should be impossible for any reactor to explode in the same way that Chernobyl did in 1986.

Even so, said Mr Neill, "China's aspirations to export peaceful nuclear technology elsewhere will no doubt raise concerns about proliferation and whether it stays within guidelines of the United Nations and International Atomic Energy Agency."

Mostly to be built in the country's interior, construction of the first 195 megawatt "pebble-bed" reactor will begin this year near the city of Weihai in eastern Shandong.

Its development has been funded by a combination of state run energy companies and universities and while it will be producing electricity within four years, Chinese commentators say that the technology will not be commercially viable until much later.

"As the research evolves, the new technology could be competitive in 2020 or 2030," said Liu Wei, the vice-president of the Beijing Institute of Nuclear Engineering.

By that time, the rest of the world may be looking to China for its energy supply.