China has been given the go-signal to resume the construction of its nuclear power plants that were discontinued earlier this year prompted by Japan’s Fukushima crisis in March.
Xu Yuming, vice secretary-general of the China Nuclear Energy Association, said in Bloomberg construction may restart by the end of the year, however approvals for new projects will continue to be suspended.
Xu said China has completed safety checks on its plants, the results of which have been submitted to the State Council. However, it is still impossible for China to continue the pace and accomplishments of the previous nuclear-plant building activities.
“We were building new reactors more and more quickly from 2008 to 2010, and then suddenly this year there were none,” Xu said.
“It’s not quite possible for us to start building at the average of eight reactors a year we saw in the last three years,” he added.
The federal government discontinued approvals of atomic reactors in the country following the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan that damaged the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant. The subsequent radiation leak prompted nations to review their respective nuclear development plans.
Inspectors hired by China concluded its atomic plants were safe and were not exposed to conditions that may lead to accidents similar to Fukushima, Xu said.
According to its website, the China Nuclear Energy Association aids in the operation and performance of the country’s atomic policies.
China is on a continuous manhunt, scouting for approaches and methods, to address some of its electric power shortages. Its economic growth over the past decade led it to become the world’s largest electricity consumer. However, China’s zooming growth has put increasing stress on the nation’s electrical generation grid. Since April, Chinese power plants have been battling electric power shortages due to increasing demand, higher coal prices and a drought in southern China diminishing hydroelectric electrical output.
The World Energy Outlook report published early this month by the International Energy Agency said the world’s second-largest economy will out race the United States to become the world’s largest energy consumer by 2035.
