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| China Mainland faces cost and waste thicket in hunt for clean energy |
| News Archive - Environmental, New & Alternative Energy - April news | |
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Monday, April 24, 2006 Look away from the four giant nuclear reactors, and Daya Bay's manicured lawns, golf range and ocean-front apartments seem like the trappings of a luxury south China housing enclave. Beijing thinks nuclear power offers a partial remedy for ills ranging from the pall of smog hanging over its cities to a growing addiction to foreign oil. Analysts and environmentalists warn a range of challenges, from waste disposal to the daunting price tag on new generators, could give the energy cure a bitter taste. Currently, nine reactors contribute barely 2 percent of the nation's power. The target is to raise this to 40 gigawatts, or 4 percent, over the next 15 years by building 30 new reactors. China has what is probably the largest variety of nuclear technologies within a single nation's borders. It has used Canadian, French and Russian designs and is considering signing up for a US one, as well as supporting home-grown technology. "It was a deliberate, not accidental, mix and it probably was a good strategy as it keeps them up to speed on what is going on worldwide," said Beijing- based energy analyst James Brock. Besides cherry-picking the best international technology, mainland scientists believe they may have found a way to lay to rest the ghost of Chernobyl. The pebble-bed reactor being developed at Tsinghua University is meltdown-proof, said Wu Zongxin, who has worked on it for over two decades. It uses fuel "pebbles" - roughly the size of tennis balls and wrapped in graphite with a higher melting point than the uranium inside - to prevent runaway reactions, he said. Mainland power developers are also pursuing designs that use less uranium. As nations trying to cut pollution take another look at nuclear power, uranium prices have risen, more than tripling since 2004. Despite the new research, Beijing may struggle to persuade listed utilities to help fund the expansion. Although plants are cheap to run, with low exposure to fuel costs particularly valuable as oil and gas prices rise, they are very expensive to build. "I do not think Chinese power producers are going to rush into nuclear power because it's the `in' thing," said Joseph Jacobelli, utilities analyst at Merrill Lynch in Hong Kong. "For a two-gigawatt power plant, you have costs of US$3 billion [HK$23.4 billion] and all of that is front-loaded." Rigorous safety procedures copied from the designers have given China a solid record so far despite the variety of reactors it uses. China National Nuclear Corp helps unify safety plans. But if something does go wrong and officials are tempted to cover up, there may be no one to call them to account in a society that brooks limited dissent. "Civil society safeguards - press freedom, whistleblower protection, human rights laws - form a more amorphous layer of protections which are largely absent in China," said Jim Green, nuclear campaigner from Friends of the Earth in Australia. Disposing of the over 1,000 tonnes a year of radioactive waste the expansion could produce is another minefield. There are plans to expand a small facility in western Gansu province to deal with much of the spent fuel, but Green says details are opaque and, with concern over environmental issues growing on the coast, poorer areas may be forced to host their nuclear waste. REUTERS |
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