China's vast nuclear push is likely to slow after the government ordered a safety crackdown on Wednesday in the wake of Japan's nuclear crisis. The announcement by China's State Council, or cabinet, was the clearest sign yet that the crisis at a quake-ravaged nuclear complex in north-east Japan could drag on China's ambitious nuclear energy expansion, by far the world's largest.
A State Council meeting chaired by Premier Wen Jiabao told Chinese residents they had nothing to fear about radiation drifting from Japan's Fukushima Daiichi plant. But China's own nuclear power plans would face tougher scrutiny and adjustment, said the account of the meeting on the government's website (www.gov.cn). "We will temporarily suspend approval of nuclear power projects, including those in the preliminary stages of development, before nuclear safety regulations are approved," the statement said. It urged using "the most advanced standards" for a safety assessment of all nuclear plants under construction.
"Any hazards must be thoroughly dealt with, and those that do not conform to safety standards must immediately cease construction," the statement said. Japan's crisis would bolster Chinese nuclear safety officials' sway, said Mark Hibbs, an expert on nuclear policy in China and other countries at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
China is building about 28 reactors, or roughly 40 percent of the world's total under construction, and the central government has fast-tracked approvals in the past two years. China now has only 10.8 gigawatts of nuclear generating capacity in operation after over two decades of construction, so the plan to get almost four times as much underway in the next five years marks a dramatic acceleration.
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