Can the ocean fuel China’s nuclear boom?
- Beijing is planning to build a facility capable of extracting uranium from seawater in 10 years’ time
- China is promoting the development of nuclear power plants but its uranium reserves will only last another five years
Construction work could start as early as 2026, and once completed the plant would have the capacity to extract tonnes of uranium a year from seawater, where uranium reserves are believed to be 1,000 times more than on land.
The China Academy of Engineering Physics, which oversees the development of nuclear weapons, will lead the project with support from civilian research institutes like the Chinese Academy of Sciences, according to researchers informed about the project.
“The nuclear industry is a hi-tech strategic industry, an important cornerstone of national security. Uranium resources play an important role in supporting the nuclear fuel cycle system,” Cao Shudong, general manager of China National Nuclear Corporation, said in an article about the project published in official newspaper China Energy News on Monday.
China is short on uranium, with reserves of just 170,000 tonnes, less than those of France. At its current rate of building six to eight nuclear reactors a year, China would need about 35,000 tonnes of uranium a year by 2035, according to an official estimate, meaning its reserves would be depleted in less than five years.