BETA
This is a BETA experience. You may opt-out by clicking here

More From Forbes

Edit Story

Fukushima Boosts China's Domestic Nuclear Reactor Industry

Following
This article is more than 10 years old.

CANDU Nuclear Power Plant at Qinshan, China (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Because of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, China may free itself more quickly from reliance on imported nuclear-power technology, according to a Harvard scholar of global nuclear expansion.

The ill-fated Fukushima reactors were designed by General Electric, and China has announced plans to build more advanced reactors with Westinghouse—a subsidiary of Toshiba, Corp.—but the fleet of reactors in China’s ambitious nuclear future will likely be labeled “made in China.”

Since Fukushima, all three of China’s domestic reactor manufacturers have announced their own Gen III designs, according to Yun Zhou, a Chinese-educated scholar who observes the nuclear industry from Harvard University.

“It appears that the Fukushima disaster may lead China to adopt newer, third-generation (or Gen III) reactor designs created by Chinese firms,” Zhou writes in The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, “allowing China to wean itself from purely foreign reactor technology much more quickly than was expected pre-Fukushima.”

Gen III reactors like the Westinghouse AP1000 incorporate safety features developed since the proliferation of Gen II reactors like those at Fukushima and like many in the U.S.

China still plans to increase its nuclear capacity from about 12 gigawatts before Fukushima to 70 gigawatts by 2020, Zhou says.

Although Chinese officials initially said they would not change the country’s nuclear plan in the wake of Fukushima, they halted reactor construction and adopted new safety standards.

The safety standards will not be applied to reactors that were already under construction in China, but they indicate China is shifting to Gen III reactors in the future, according to Zhou.

“By halting nuclear construction projects and establishing new safety standards, China signaled that it knew the aggressive nuclear power development plans envisioned prior to Fukushima could no longer be followed. While operating reactors and those under construction were spared from major re-engineering as a result of post-Fukushima regulatory reviews, new reactor projects will face critical design alterations under the new safety plan requirements.”

Related Posts:

Exelon's 'Nuclear Guy': No New Nukes

Bill Gates's Nuke Startup Flirting With More Than Just China

Small Modular Nuclear Reactors By 2022 -- But No Market For Them