China sets up nuclear safety committee to boost 2060 carbon neutral efforts

Name: Chinese cash funds African coal plants despite environmental concerns
Uploaded: 2021-03-25T11:15:04.000Z
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Committee will create ‘strict and high’ nuclear safety standard, government says

Nuclear power generation capacity is set to increase, with nuclear having a role if China is to cut its carbon dioxide emissions

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Beijing plans to increase nuclear power generation capacity significantly in the next five years. Photo: Xinhua

Rachel Zhangin Shanghai

Published: 7:15pm, 25 Mar 2021Updated: 7:15pm, 25 Mar 2021

China has set up a national nuclear safety standardisation technical committee, as it aims to increase use of nuclear power under its efforts to be carbon neutral by 2060.

The government last year set a target that China’s carbon dioxide emissions should peak by 2030, with nuclear energy expected to play a significant role in reaching this as well as the 2060 goal.

In the country’s latest five-year plan – which set out China’s economic and development goals for the five years from 2021 – Beijing said it aimed before 2025 to raise nuclear power generation capacity to 70 gigawatts, which would be an increase of 27 per cent from last year’s 51GW.

China failed to meet its nuclear energy targets under the previous five-year plan covering 2016 to 2020. It had suspended approvals for new nuclear power stations in 2011 after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan.

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The committee will establish “a strict and high nuclear safety standard” and “further improve the level of legalisation of nuclear safety”, according to a government press release on Wednesday.