China's Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council has drafted new rules for nuclear plant development that would have companies clear their projects through local stakeholders.
In August, a proposed $15 billion nuclear waste processing plant planned for the city of Lianyungang was canceled after local residents protested. “Japan's Fukushima accident once again created doubt about the safety of nuclear power among the public,” the Legislative Affairs Office said in a statement, as reported by World News. The accident in Japan “caused feelings of fear and opposition to occur from time to time.”
China's nuclear power plans are the most ambitious in the world. The country currently has 35 nuclear power reactors running with 20 more under construction. The plan is to escalate its nuclear power generation capacity from 30.7 GWe in July to at least 58 GWe by 2021 and as much as 150 GWe by 2030. Part of the funding for this is expected to come from profits from China's ambitious nuclear power export plans.
In the meantime, the International Atomic Energy Agency said recently that the “unparalleled” growth in nuclear power in China would require a strong regulatory system and that more attention to decommissioning and long-term waste management was required.
In step with its proposal to have companies include the public in the approval process, the Legislative Affairs Office posted a draft of the new guidelines on its Web site. The office is accepting public comment on the draft proposal through Oct. 19.