China is at the centre of mankind’s on-off flirtation with nuclear power. After Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011, Beijing joined the rest of the world in recoiling in horror, suspending approvals for new nuclear projects. That caution was justified: within months, a high-speed rail crash blamed on design flaws and poor management revealed that China’s ability to run high-profile projects was no better than anyone else’s. Now, though, the world’s biggest nuclear development programme is being rebooted.
China’s cabinet this month approved the industry’s safety plan, indicating that the green light for new projects is imminent. Meanwhile, the environment ministry gave the nod for China National Nuclear Power, one of the nation’s biggest operators, to begin raising up to $27bn – including via a stock market listing – to fund five nuclear projects.
China needs nuclear power. Total power consumption per capita is one-third that of the world average. While coal dominates today, coal consumption would need to quadruple for per capita power use to reach that average, which would quickly exhaust domestic coal supplies. Even the use of natural gas, green energy and scaled-back plans will see China’s nuclear power capacity jump fivefold by 2020.