How Innovative Is China in Nuclear Power?

Re:How Innovative Is China in Nuclear Power? by defrost on Monday June 17, 2024 @04:50AM (#40703602)

China isn't building inland nuclear reactors:

    China imposed a moratorium on inland nuclear construction following the 2011 Fukushima accident, which impedes nuclear from hitting the 10% of power generation goal.

    While surveys show nuclear has public support, Chinese citizens have more negative views towards building reactors inland.

    “Considering current social and economic pressures, the Chinese government probably deems it too risky to lift the inland nuclear moratorium and agitate the public further,” commented Philip Andrews-Speed of the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies in an interview.

From: Don’t Panic US: China’s Nuclear Power Ascendancy Has Its Limits https://www.newsecuritybeat.org/2024/05/dont-panic-us-chinas...

the May 2024 Wilson Centre pushback on nuclear China concerns.

Also a concept of "Ecological civilization" is currently a key part of the CCP policy framework and, regardless of how others see this, wind, solar, and nuclear are all seen as technologies for an ecologically sensible and sustainable future .. currently being paid for with coal expansion for "seed energy" and planned retirement of coal.

Various publications cover this, eg: the French Groupe d'études géopolitiques in: https://geopolitique.eu/en/issues/chinas-ecological-power-an...

and (Wilson Centre again) Ecological Civilization Goes Global: China’s Green Soft Power and South-South Environmental Initiatives https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/ecological-civiliza...

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Re:How Innovative Is China in Nuclear Power? by cm2187 on Monday June 17, 2024 @05:02AM (#40703682)

What do they mean by “inland”? The vast majority of the chinese population and industry is near the coast.

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Re:How Innovative Is China in Nuclear Power? by defrost on Monday June 17, 2024 @05:15AM (#40703747)

TBH right now I'm wondering about the accuracy of the 2024 Wilson newsletter quote I gave (it could be true) as it stands in contrast to a 2015 Guardian article:

    Proposals to build plants inland, as China ends a moratorium on new generators imposed after the Fukushima disaster in March 2011, are particularly risky, the physicist He Zuoxiu said, because if there was an accident it could contaminate rivers that hundreds of millions of people rely on for water and taint groundwater supplies to vast swathes of important farmlands.

- https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/25/china-nuclear-...

The context of "inland" here is near rivers and farmland that provide food and water for the population that live in dense urban areas nearer the coast.

Both could be true, just talking about different moratoriums, or one lifted then reimposed, both may have errors, etc.

It really needs a far better China watcher than myself to clarify.

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Re:How Innovative Is China in Nuclear Power? by alephnerd on Monday June 17, 2024 @05:33AM (#40703844)

Officials at the NEA technically removed the moratorium in 2014 [0] but it de facto still exists [1] given that they haven't been given priority in 5 Year Plans, massive inland projects like Toahuajiang have been mothballed, and the R&D has moved towards floating nuclear power plants instead.

It makes sense because the Chinese public is like any other public and very NIMBY and scared of meltdowns. The CCP is authoritarian, but they do take public sentiment into account.

Misinformation (some of which is government supported) like the Fukushima Water Discharge and the constant reporting about anti-Nuclear protests in Japan (in an attempt to bloody Japan's nose) also hurt the support of nuclear power in China [2]

[0] - https://fjb.nea.gov.cn/dtyw/jgdt/202311/t20231110_200899.htm...

[1] - https://power.m.ofweek.com/2021-04/ART-35007-8420-30494525.h...

[2] - https://www.wsj.com/world/asia/anti-japanese-feeling-rises-i...

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