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China puts nuclear power, waste disposal on the front burner in bid to meet climate targets
- Beijing wants industry development accelerated in the next five years
- That includes building more facilities to deal with radioactive waste
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China plans to build more facilities to deal with waste from nuclear power plants in the next five years, as it speeds up development of the industry in a bid to meet ambitious climate targets.
In its draft 14th five-year plan released on Friday, Beijing also calls for home-grown third-generation nuclear technologies like Hualong One and Guohe One to be promoted.
The first Hualong One reactor was connected to the power grid in November, while the Guohe One design was completed in September. Two high-temperature gas-cooled reactors in Shandong – the first in the world – also finished testing in November and are expected to be connected to the grid this year.
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To push forward the industry, the five-year plan to 2025 also calls for demonstration projects to be built for small modular reactors and floating nuclear plants.
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China last year pledged to hit peak carbon emissions by 2030 and become carbon neutral by 2060. Nuclear power is a big factor in achieving those goals, but it has already missed a target of having 58 gigawatts of capacity in service and 30GW under construction by 2020.
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