Chinese Provinces Suspend Nuclear Power Plant Projects

The implications of the Fukushima catastrophe are reverberating through China, as a number of provinces have suspended new nuclear power projects.

This in turn has added pressure to the government’s emission reduction target contained in the country’s 12th Five-Year Program.

Fujian province has vowed to build “no more nuclear plants," Hong Kong’s Ching Chi Jih Pao economic daily reported. Fujian province governor Huang Xiaojing commented, "Fujian has three nuclear power plants, and that is enough. Projects that have not been completed must not be continued," adding that that it is necessary to make sure the nuclear power plants under construction are absolutely safe. Other projects that "have not been built and whose preliminary work has not been done must not go ahead."

Huang's announcement has elicited responses, with Dr Zhu Sihai of the Fujian Provincial Government Development and Research Center countering that the province’s current three nuclear power plants could hardly support the energy demand in Fujian in the future while Chen Boqing, a member of the Chinese Nuclear Society and the former deputy director of the Office of Nuclear Energy in Fujian Province, said there was no need whatsoever to build two or three more nuclear power plants in Fujian.

Hubei province has also temporarily suspended approval of nuclear projects while Guangdong province, which has vowed to establish itself as a "special region of nuclear energy," is assessing the impact of the Fukushima debacle.

By. Joao Peixe, Deputy Editor OilPrice.com