China condemns U.S. blacklisting of its nuclear firms
September 10, 2019 Category China News Round-up, Weekly
Director Liu Hua of the National Nuclear Safety Administration has condemned the U.S. blacklisting of Chinese nuclear firms, and warned that ultimately the move could harm American companies. He said U.S. protectionism behind the move would harm the interests of companies in both countries, but could strengthen Chinese firms’ research and development and improve their creativity. He also pointed out that the market for nuclear cooperation was wide, and that other countries, besides the U.S., were already involved in China’s nuclear industry. France and Russia were among China’s nuclear cooperation partners. Cooperative projects, including nuclear power facilities and reprocessing plants, were making progress, Liu said, as China published its first white paper on nuclear safety.
The U.S. Department of Commerce placed China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN) and its subsidiaries on its entity list in August, alleging the companies had “engaged in or enabled efforts to acquire advanced U.S. nuclear technology and material for diversion to military uses in China”. CGN said the impact of the blacklisting on its development would be limited. As of July, CGN had 23 nuclear reactors in operation with a capacity of 25 gigawatt (GW) and five under construction with a capacity of 6.35 GW.
Experts also said the blacklisting by the U.S. would not have a big impact on China. China has shown an interest in exporting its nuclear technologies as part of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Two of China’s third-generation “Hualong One” nuclear reactors are under construction in Pakistan, while it is also bidding for projects in Argentina and Britain. At a forum in April, Liu said there were 18 cooperation agreements for Hualong One with 16 Belt and Road countries. China and French firm Areva are continuing with a nuclear fuel reprocessing project, with commercial negotiations nearing their end. Liu Hua said that about five plants in total were planned for the disposal of low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste, and both self-built facilities and the French cooperation project were all in the process of active promotion. The five new plants will be part of the next phase of China’s nuclear power program, which will also include research and development on the deep disposal of high-level waste, the South China Morning Post reports.
As of June 2019, China had 47 nuclear power units in operation with a capacity of about 48.73 GW and 11 nuclear power units under construction, with a capacity of 10.8 GW. In its 13th Five Year Plan, published in 2016, China planned to raise its installed nuclear capacity to 58 GW by 2020, with another 30 GW under construction.
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