A municipal government in China representing the coastal city of Lianyungang has suspended preliminary site work for a nuclear waste processing plant after local residents protested the site selection, the municipality's Web site announced.
The government for the city, which is 300 miles north of Shanghai, also said it would take legal action against protesters that it said were “fomenting social disorder” and spreading misinformation about the project, which is to be run by state-owned China National Nuclear Corporation in a partnership with AREVA of France.
Construction is expected to formally begin in 2020 with the official opening expected by 2030, according to a Reuters report.
Lianyungang is in the province of Jiangsu, which is home to the Tianwan nuclear power plant, which consists of two operating reactors of Russian design and two additional reactors currently under construction.
China's nuclear industry also made headlines this week after the country's ambassador to Britain complained that the government's decision to delay approval of the Hinkley Point C construction project was straining Sino-British relations.
Ambassador Liu Xiaoming said the relationship between the two countries was at a “crucial historical juncture.” Last year, a joint Chinese venture involving China National Nuclear Corporation and China General Nuclear Power agreed to finance a third of the Hinkley Point C project with agreements involving French utility EDF and the British government. At that point, former British Prime Minister David Cameron described Sino-British relations as entering a “golden era.” This year, however, just as EDF announced it would go ahead with the costly build, newly sworn in Prime Minister Theresa May decided to revisit the decision.