Opportunities and Challenges of Nuclear Power Development in China

Abstract

With real economic growth rate of over 9% per year, China faces a great challenge to meet its increasing energy demand. Nuclear, as a relatively clean energy source has been paid high attention by Chinese government. With Chinas ambitious target of 86GW installed nuclear capacity and additional 18GW under construction by 2020 including inland nuclear power plant, China will become one major country in East Asia along with Korea and Japan (National Development and Reform Commission (2007) Medium- and long-term nuclear power development plan (2005–2020) (in Chinese)). The aim of this paper is to examine the China’s nuclear energy program of the past, present in conjunction with the likely future developments of her nuclear energy. Some driving factors including oil supply security, environment pressure and uneven distribution of energy are being discussed. At the same time, questions such as the lack of uranium resource, future disposal of nuclear waste, and reactor safety issues are going to be discussed. As a conclusion, some suggestions and recommendations have been proposed for future nuclear power development in China.