Page 232 - 2020 White Paper on the Business Environment in China
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0 White Paper on the Business Environment in China
Nuclear Power In 2019, Beijing announced plans to invest
US$12 billion in four new reactors for the first time
China’s voracious appetite for new nuclear since 2016. The broad surge came after China’s
power plants has helped to slow the decline in Ministry of Ecology and Environment said that
recent years of an ailing nuclear energy industry China National Nuclear Power (CNNP) and China
long dominated by the United States and Europe. General Nuclear Power Group (CGN) plan to build
From a late and inauspicious start in the 1990s, two reactors each starting in June. CNNP’s reactors
China’s nuclear fleet has risen to become the are planned in Zhangzhou city, Fujian province,
third largest in the world. According to Chinese while CGN will build the other two in Huizhou city,
government projections, within the next decade Guangdong province. The companies will adopt
China may surpass the US as the world’s leading China’s domestically developed nuclear reactor
nuclear energy producer. design, namely the Hualong One third-generation
reactors. It has been developed by CNNP and CGN
China’s nuclear power generation increased in based on the ACPR1000 and ACP1000 designs,
2018 as the country installed more reactor units, derived from the French technology. CNNP officials
official data showed. Altogether 294.4 billion have hailed it as China’s independent innovation. If
kWh of nuclear power was generated that year, advanced on schedule, the launch will end a three-
up 18.6 percent year on year, according to the year hiatus in China’s nuclear reactor construction
China Electricity Council (CEC). It accounted for and boost the country’s nuclear export ambitions.
4.2 percent of the country’s overall electricity Beijing did not approve any new reactor from 2016
generation, saving 100 million US tons of standard to 2018, partly due to the slow progress in the use of
coal and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 310 advanced and safer third-generation reactors (He).
million US tons. China’s nuclear power units kept
safe and stable operation in 2018, according to the It’s hard to predict what’s in store for China
CEC. The country put into operation seven nuclear and its nuclear ambitions. As in other industrial
power units in 2018, with newly installed capacity areas, the Chinese nuclear sector can count on
reaching 8.84 million KW. As of March 2019, China strong government support and vast economic
has 46 nuclear reactors in operation with a capacity and human resources. Yet the sizeable Chinese
of 42.8 GW and 11 under construction with a nuclear industry faces unprecedented challenges
capacity of 10.8 GW. Another 11 units are under at home even as it seeks to venture into politically
construction, with a combined installed capacity tricky overseas sales. China’s efforts to produce
of 12.18 million KW. China aims to lift its installed higher quality and more advanced reactors with
capacity of nuclear power units in operation and fewer subsidies will test the ability of its nuclear
under construction to about 88 million kilowatts enterprises domestically and abroad at a time
by 2020 (Xinhua, China’s nuclear power). China has when the entire future of nuclear power, and of
pledged to raise its total installed nuclear capacity Beijing’s relations with leading energy consumers,
to 58 GW by 2020. It also aims to have another 30 are more and more uncertain (Pomper).
GW under construction by the end of 2020. The
nation had 45.9 GW in operation as of January 2019 Coal-fired Power
with another 12.2 GW under construction. There
is another 29.1 GW mostly ready for construction While China has significantly expanded its
but awaiting final approval from the central renewable energy capacity over the past decade, a
government. China may miss its 2020 nuclear report released ahead of the annual G20 Summit in
generation goal, but only by one or two years. Plans Osaka in 2019 suggested that the country still has
call for 58 GW in operational capacity and 30 GW a long way to go to be a true climate leader. The
under construction by then might not be reached, Overseas Development Institute report showed
chiefly because of slow approvals as well as delays G20 countries have almost tripled the subsidies
in the commissioning of new generation reactors they give to coal-fired power plants in recent
such as Taishan Unit 1, but China’s target should be years—despite pledging a decade ago to phase out
reached by 2021 or 2022 (Zheng, Work on). all fossil fuel subsidies. As China moves to cut coal
232
Nuclear Power In 2019, Beijing announced plans to invest
US$12 billion in four new reactors for the first time
China’s voracious appetite for new nuclear since 2016. The broad surge came after China’s
power plants has helped to slow the decline in Ministry of Ecology and Environment said that
recent years of an ailing nuclear energy industry China National Nuclear Power (CNNP) and China
long dominated by the United States and Europe. General Nuclear Power Group (CGN) plan to build
From a late and inauspicious start in the 1990s, two reactors each starting in June. CNNP’s reactors
China’s nuclear fleet has risen to become the are planned in Zhangzhou city, Fujian province,
third largest in the world. According to Chinese while CGN will build the other two in Huizhou city,
government projections, within the next decade Guangdong province. The companies will adopt
China may surpass the US as the world’s leading China’s domestically developed nuclear reactor
nuclear energy producer. design, namely the Hualong One third-generation
reactors. It has been developed by CNNP and CGN
China’s nuclear power generation increased in based on the ACPR1000 and ACP1000 designs,
2018 as the country installed more reactor units, derived from the French technology. CNNP officials
official data showed. Altogether 294.4 billion have hailed it as China’s independent innovation. If
kWh of nuclear power was generated that year, advanced on schedule, the launch will end a three-
up 18.6 percent year on year, according to the year hiatus in China’s nuclear reactor construction
China Electricity Council (CEC). It accounted for and boost the country’s nuclear export ambitions.
4.2 percent of the country’s overall electricity Beijing did not approve any new reactor from 2016
generation, saving 100 million US tons of standard to 2018, partly due to the slow progress in the use of
coal and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 310 advanced and safer third-generation reactors (He).
million US tons. China’s nuclear power units kept
safe and stable operation in 2018, according to the It’s hard to predict what’s in store for China
CEC. The country put into operation seven nuclear and its nuclear ambitions. As in other industrial
power units in 2018, with newly installed capacity areas, the Chinese nuclear sector can count on
reaching 8.84 million KW. As of March 2019, China strong government support and vast economic
has 46 nuclear reactors in operation with a capacity and human resources. Yet the sizeable Chinese
of 42.8 GW and 11 under construction with a nuclear industry faces unprecedented challenges
capacity of 10.8 GW. Another 11 units are under at home even as it seeks to venture into politically
construction, with a combined installed capacity tricky overseas sales. China’s efforts to produce
of 12.18 million KW. China aims to lift its installed higher quality and more advanced reactors with
capacity of nuclear power units in operation and fewer subsidies will test the ability of its nuclear
under construction to about 88 million kilowatts enterprises domestically and abroad at a time
by 2020 (Xinhua, China’s nuclear power). China has when the entire future of nuclear power, and of
pledged to raise its total installed nuclear capacity Beijing’s relations with leading energy consumers,
to 58 GW by 2020. It also aims to have another 30 are more and more uncertain (Pomper).
GW under construction by the end of 2020. The
nation had 45.9 GW in operation as of January 2019 Coal-fired Power
with another 12.2 GW under construction. There
is another 29.1 GW mostly ready for construction While China has significantly expanded its
but awaiting final approval from the central renewable energy capacity over the past decade, a
government. China may miss its 2020 nuclear report released ahead of the annual G20 Summit in
generation goal, but only by one or two years. Plans Osaka in 2019 suggested that the country still has
call for 58 GW in operational capacity and 30 GW a long way to go to be a true climate leader. The
under construction by then might not be reached, Overseas Development Institute report showed
chiefly because of slow approvals as well as delays G20 countries have almost tripled the subsidies
in the commissioning of new generation reactors they give to coal-fired power plants in recent
such as Taishan Unit 1, but China’s target should be years—despite pledging a decade ago to phase out
reached by 2021 or 2022 (Zheng, Work on). all fossil fuel subsidies. As China moves to cut coal
232
