Saifullah Sani
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A French nuclear regulatory official, in uncharacteristically blunt language, last week publicly voiced concerns about the construction of a nuclear generating station in Taishan, in China’s Guangdong province. There, China General Nuclear Power Corp., a state enterprise, will soon complete and operate a generating station with two 1,750 megawatt reactors developed by Areva, the French company. Electricite de France is overseeing the project, about 80 miles west of Hong Kong, and is a 30% owner of the operating entity.
Each of the Taishan units will have twice the generating capacity of the average reactor and will be the largest in the world. The European Pressurized Reactors, as the units are known, have not been put into commercial operation before. China’s EPRs are expected to go online next year, well before identical units in France and Finland, now under construction.
The EPRs in Europe are about four years behind schedule. In China, there have been delays, but Taishan, costing $8.3 billion, is proceeding significantly faster than the French or Finnish projects.
Is the quick pace in China a good or bad sign? “It’s not always easy to know what is happening at the Taishan site,” said Stephane Pailler of France’s Nuclear Safety Authority. “We don’t have a regular relationship with the Chinese on EPR control like we have with the Finnish.” Pailler’s comments echoed those of Philippe Jamet, a French nuclear safety commissioner. “Unfortunately, collaboration isn’t at a level we would wish it to be,” he told French legislators this February, referring to the Chinese.
Not everyone is a critic, however. Areva Chief Operating Officer Philippe Knoche tells us China’s nuclear regulator “is extremely demanding.”
Knoche could be correct, but it certainly appears Chinese inspectors have far too much to do. “One of the explanations for the difficulties in our relations is that the Chinese safety authorities lack means,” Jamet said. “They are overwhelmed.”
To their credit, Chinese leaders, in the wake of the March 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan, suspended approvals for nuclear generating stations and ordered thorough checks of facilities both under construction and in operation. Yet now China is in full-steam-ahead mode, and countries downwind have to be especially concerned. At the moment, 28 of the 72 reactors under construction in the world are in China, and Beijing is about to issue additional approvals. No nation is building more nuclear plants at this time. Second-place Russia is only constructing 10.
Not only are Chinese companies constructing reactor projects in China, they are beginning to export them. The first customer is neighbor Pakistan, which is buying an advanced Chinese model that will be the first of its kind. Pakistanis are worried that the untested reactors, based on a Westinghouse design and built largely with indigenized parts, will imperil Karachi’s 20 million inhabitants.
And China has ambitions that go far beyond Pakistan, its decades-old friend. Chinese state enterprises will take up to a 40% interest in Hinkley Point C, a station with two EPR reactors to be built in the southwest of England, near Bristol. And last week Britain signed an agreement with China to allow that country’s companies to build, own, and operate Chinese-designed nuclear power plants in Britain. Three Chinese state enterprises are also thinking of projects in Turkey, Brazil, South Africa, and Argentina.
Many think Chinese enterprises will eventually succeed. “China has all the necessary ingredients for success in global nuclear power expansion,” says Kim Young-joon of law firm Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy. “It has relatively strong operational safety records, strong government, and deep capital resources.”
China certainly has the money, but its safety record is unknown, at least to outsiders. Beijing officials have reported few problems in the 22 years China has been generating electricity from the atom, but it is not entirely clear they have told us everything. “The workings of China’s atomic safety authority are a total black box,” says Albert Lai of The Professional Commons, a think tank in Hong Kong. “China has no transparency whatsoever.”
Moreover, China’s three nuclear enterprises would be stretched thin by an export push. They cannot provide the full “ecosystem” of post-completion support and do not have enough personnel even for the construction phase. It is, therefore, unlikely they can muster the resources for their full-court press overseas.
Even at home, there are big question marks. Li Yulun, a former vice president of China National Nuclear Corp., has expressed concern that Chinese companies working on reactor projects do not share Beijing’s emphasis on safety. Furthermore, the State Council Research Office has raised doubts about the accelerated pace of reactor construction in China. China, we have to remember, is the country where everything gets built ahead of schedule, but “tofu” buildings fall down, new bridges collapse, and just-laid train tracks warp.
So why are Chinese regulators not answering their phones when the French call to talk about Taishan? Maybe they’re overworked, as Jamet, the French nuclear safety commissioner, suggests. And maybe there are intractable problems at the plant that officials don’t want to talk about. From what little we know, Taishan has already had its share of difficulties. For instance, a French safety inspector during a visit last year saw steam generators and pumps not maintained “at an adequate level.”
Or maybe Beijing’s regulators are merely displaying the arrogance that seems to typify Chinese officials recently. We can only speculate as to the reason Beijing does not want to talk about Taishan.
Yet we can be sure something is wrong, so we have to be concerned that there could be another Chernobyl in our future, either in China or at a Chinese plant soon to be built elsewhere.
Will China Export The Next Chernobyl? - Forbes
Each of the Taishan units will have twice the generating capacity of the average reactor and will be the largest in the world. The European Pressurized Reactors, as the units are known, have not been put into commercial operation before. China’s EPRs are expected to go online next year, well before identical units in France and Finland, now under construction.
The EPRs in Europe are about four years behind schedule. In China, there have been delays, but Taishan, costing $8.3 billion, is proceeding significantly faster than the French or Finnish projects.
Is the quick pace in China a good or bad sign? “It’s not always easy to know what is happening at the Taishan site,” said Stephane Pailler of France’s Nuclear Safety Authority. “We don’t have a regular relationship with the Chinese on EPR control like we have with the Finnish.” Pailler’s comments echoed those of Philippe Jamet, a French nuclear safety commissioner. “Unfortunately, collaboration isn’t at a level we would wish it to be,” he told French legislators this February, referring to the Chinese.
Not everyone is a critic, however. Areva Chief Operating Officer Philippe Knoche tells us China’s nuclear regulator “is extremely demanding.”
Knoche could be correct, but it certainly appears Chinese inspectors have far too much to do. “One of the explanations for the difficulties in our relations is that the Chinese safety authorities lack means,” Jamet said. “They are overwhelmed.”
To their credit, Chinese leaders, in the wake of the March 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan, suspended approvals for nuclear generating stations and ordered thorough checks of facilities both under construction and in operation. Yet now China is in full-steam-ahead mode, and countries downwind have to be especially concerned. At the moment, 28 of the 72 reactors under construction in the world are in China, and Beijing is about to issue additional approvals. No nation is building more nuclear plants at this time. Second-place Russia is only constructing 10.
Not only are Chinese companies constructing reactor projects in China, they are beginning to export them. The first customer is neighbor Pakistan, which is buying an advanced Chinese model that will be the first of its kind. Pakistanis are worried that the untested reactors, based on a Westinghouse design and built largely with indigenized parts, will imperil Karachi’s 20 million inhabitants.
And China has ambitions that go far beyond Pakistan, its decades-old friend. Chinese state enterprises will take up to a 40% interest in Hinkley Point C, a station with two EPR reactors to be built in the southwest of England, near Bristol. And last week Britain signed an agreement with China to allow that country’s companies to build, own, and operate Chinese-designed nuclear power plants in Britain. Three Chinese state enterprises are also thinking of projects in Turkey, Brazil, South Africa, and Argentina.
Many think Chinese enterprises will eventually succeed. “China has all the necessary ingredients for success in global nuclear power expansion,” says Kim Young-joon of law firm Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy. “It has relatively strong operational safety records, strong government, and deep capital resources.”
China certainly has the money, but its safety record is unknown, at least to outsiders. Beijing officials have reported few problems in the 22 years China has been generating electricity from the atom, but it is not entirely clear they have told us everything. “The workings of China’s atomic safety authority are a total black box,” says Albert Lai of The Professional Commons, a think tank in Hong Kong. “China has no transparency whatsoever.”
Moreover, China’s three nuclear enterprises would be stretched thin by an export push. They cannot provide the full “ecosystem” of post-completion support and do not have enough personnel even for the construction phase. It is, therefore, unlikely they can muster the resources for their full-court press overseas.
Even at home, there are big question marks. Li Yulun, a former vice president of China National Nuclear Corp., has expressed concern that Chinese companies working on reactor projects do not share Beijing’s emphasis on safety. Furthermore, the State Council Research Office has raised doubts about the accelerated pace of reactor construction in China. China, we have to remember, is the country where everything gets built ahead of schedule, but “tofu” buildings fall down, new bridges collapse, and just-laid train tracks warp.
So why are Chinese regulators not answering their phones when the French call to talk about Taishan? Maybe they’re overworked, as Jamet, the French nuclear safety commissioner, suggests. And maybe there are intractable problems at the plant that officials don’t want to talk about. From what little we know, Taishan has already had its share of difficulties. For instance, a French safety inspector during a visit last year saw steam generators and pumps not maintained “at an adequate level.”
Or maybe Beijing’s regulators are merely displaying the arrogance that seems to typify Chinese officials recently. We can only speculate as to the reason Beijing does not want to talk about Taishan.
Yet we can be sure something is wrong, so we have to be concerned that there could be another Chernobyl in our future, either in China or at a Chinese plant soon to be built elsewhere.
Will China Export The Next Chernobyl? - Forbes
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