Inland nuclear plant restart to help provinces

Local governments are eager to break ground on inland nuclear power projects suspended until 2015 by a central government-imposed moratorium, a mainland business journal reported.

Beijing suspended approvals for all nuclear power plants shortly after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan on March 11, 2011, pending the outcome of a nationwide inspection of nuclear projects.

The ban on the construction of coastal nuclear plants was subsequently eased, but in October 2012 the State Council reaffirmed the ban on inland nuclear plants until 2015, citing higher risks in landlocked areas. The cabinet acknowledged it might have to reduce nuclear energy targets set out in the 12th five-year plan, which called for total installed capacity to quadruple by 2015 to reach 43 gigawatts, up from 10.8GW at the end of 2010.

China's professed goal of building more reactors than the rest of the world combined by 2020 will have to be revised.

Charges that some firms have not waited for the moratorium to be lifted and are pressing ahead with construction have surfaced on the mainland. The Taohua River nuclear project in Hunan province was said to be progressing despite the ban. In response to the reports, Hunan Taohuajiang Nuclear Power, owner of the Taohua project, issued a statement on April 5 denying construction had commenced.

The company said it was merely preparing approval documents so construction could begin as soon as the suspension was lifted.