Nuclear power frenzy in China

[bhchao]

The New York Times published an article about China's ever growing appetite for nuclear power, its rush to build nuclear power plants like the one in Daya Bay, and the environmental and economic costs associated with China's nuclear power expansion programs.

The article mentioned that the current expansion program still won't be able to meet the country's skyrocketing electricity demand.

While commercial nuclear energy programs in the US, Europe, and Japan have been put on hold for environmental and safety reasons, China is rushing ahead despite these potential dangers. Japan before was like China today, eager to rush into nuclear power as a source of energy. But recent mishaps in Japan have caused many in the public to turn against widespread use of nuclear power.

Even with nuclear energy programs stagnating in Western countries (except France), Western developers of nuclear power technologies are eager to sell it to China despite the known risks associated with nuclear power and the decline of usage in their countries. (Sounds hypocritical, but not surprising given that people would do anything for money)

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/15/international/asia/15china.html?hp&ex=1105851600&en=876ad58357a640d4&ei=5094&partner=homepage

"There are countless ways to show how China is climbing the world's economic ladder, hurdling developed countries in its path, but few are more pronounced than the country's rush into nuclear energy - a technology that for environmental, safety and economic reasons most of the world has put on hold.

In its anxiety to satisfy its seemingly bottomless demand for electricity, China plans to build reactors on a scale and pace comparable to the most ambitious nuclear energy programs the world has ever seen....

That leaves China as the only potential growth area for nuclear energy. And for China, which still derives as much as 80 percent of its electricity from burning coal, the lure of nuclear energy is as obvious as the thick, acrid, choking haze that hangs over virtually all the country's cities....

But critics question whether such a small payoff warrants exposure to the risk of catastrophic failures, nuclear proliferation, terrorism and the still unresolved problems of radioactive waste disposal....

In 1970 we had a net capability of 7 million kilowatt hours, and by 1981 we had reached 56 million kilowatt hours," said John Moens, a nuclear analyst at the United States Department of Energy. "So the rate of growth they propose is not only conceivable, it has been done before. The problem is, can you regulate it? Can you deal with the environmental problems? Can you deal with the hundred different things that creep up, as the Japanese found when they expanded their industry, just as we found when we expanded ours?"....

Daya Bay's location less than 50 miles from Hong Kong, where the proximity has become a political issue, only reinforces the environmental and safety concerns. That may sound like ample space, but it is not much different from the distance from New York City to the Indian Point nuclear plant in Buchanan, N.Y., which has become an issue since the Sept. 11 attacks...."