China’s nuclear ambitions get a boost from Russia, but is energy the only goal?
- Moscow is feeding Beijing’s growing appetite for highly enriched uranium, but observers say those supplies could be used for nuclear weapons
- China will replace the US to become the world’s top uranium buyer by 2030, experts say
The announcement backed up reports that the shipments of nuclear fuel – enriched up to 30 per cent – were part of a deal to supply a demonstration fast-neutron power plant, a technology that could help China ease its shortage of nuclear fuel.
China has a chronic shortage of uranium reserves, hampering Beijing’s plans to use nuclear power to meet its ambitious emission reduction goals or to quickly increase its nuclear weapon stockpile.
But with the enriched uranium fuelling a demonstration project for the new technology, China could improve its output of nuclear fuel and go some way to overcoming that supply problem.
The final product would be plutonium 239, an artificial element that is primarily used in nuclear warheads – and that worries the West.
02:37
Nuclear fusion ‘breakthrough’: US laboratory’s net energy gain paves way for clean power future