FROM EIR DAILY ALERT

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South China Morning Post Covers China’s Plans To Accelerate Its Nuclear Power

July 9, 2018 (EIRNS)—Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post reported today that China’s rapid expansion of nuclear power capacity, followed by other “renewable” energy sources, is enabling it to wean its economy off coal and reduced carbon emissions while continuing strong economic growth. China will double its nuclear capacity by 2040, the paper reports, “even if this requires importing technology”—as well as building China’s own Hualong reactors.

In June, “China National Nuclear Corp. reached two deals with its Russian counterpart Rosatom for four nuclear power units at the Xudabao and Tianwan plants,” involving “cutting-edge reactors.”

The only thing slowing China’s nuclear progress seems to be cost-overruns and technical delays involving Western firms: Westinghouse’s AP1000 reactors, because of its bankruptcy, and Areva’s European Pressurized Reactors, or EPR, because of its cash-flow problems.

SCMP wrote that “the country’s energy needs are so great ... that China has no choice but to continue developing nuclear power alongside renewables.”