New safety plan to boost China's nuclear power industry

The State Council's approval of a nuclear emergency plan this week has lifted the last major shadow of Fukushima from China's nuclear industry, letting it return to fast-track development, according to experts.

Although the central government had not released the plan's full text by yesterday, state media reports and experts who had participated in drafting it said the national plan featured many big changes from its previous 2006 edition.

Borrowing from the lessons of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011 - the new version stresses the importance of information transparency, international collaboration and efficiency when handling a nuclear accident.

Professor Gu Zhongmao, the scientific adviser to the China National Nuclear Corporation, said the Chinese government had withheld the approval of new thermal reactors after Fukushima, sending the world's biggest nuclear market into a mini-ice age.

Efforts have been made to upgrade safety standards since the disaster in Japan, and nuclear enterprises have had to upgrade their technology and improve management.

"The emergency plan is probably the last major step," Gu said.

The approval came on the same day that the National Development and Reform Commission set an unprecedented benchmark price for electricity generated by new nuclear power plants.