Securing China’s Nuclear Energy Development

Chinese president Xi Jinping said in his address at the 2014 Nuclear Security Summit that, “we should place equal emphasis on development [of nuclear energy] and security, and develop nuclear energy on the premise of security.” He further emphasized that, “developing nuclear energy at the expense of security can neither be sustainable nor bring real development. Only by adopting credible steps and safeguards can we keep the risks under effective control and develop nuclear energy in a sustainable way.”

Xi’s speech also signals that China will actively develop its nuclear energy.  By January 2014, China had 17 reactors in operation with an aggregate installed capacity of about 15 GWe. In addition, 31 reactors capable of producing a total of 34 GWe together are under construction–making the Chinese nuclear industry by far the fastest growing in the world. The Fukushima nuclear accident in March 2011 slowed China’s nuclear power construction momentarily, but China is now on pace to meet or exceed its pre-Fukushima development plans. China now plans to grow its total nuclear capacity to 40 GWe by 2015 and 58 GWe by 2020. However, such a goal must be guaranteed by a robust nuclear security system...