Chinese state media reported Tuesday that the country,
currently undergoing a massive push to generate more electricity from nuclear technology,
will scale back its ambitions.
People’s Daily quoted a China Electricity Council official
as saying the country should reduce its plans for 90 gigawatts of nuclear
generation by 2020 by at least 10 gigawatts, adding it also would likely not
achieve the 40 gigawatts planned to be built by 2015.
Some two dozen nuclear plants are under construction in
China right now, and its energy plan calls for $10.7 billion annually for new
nuclear generation over the next decade. New plant approval was halted, though,
following the tsunami-triggered crisis at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi plant.
Chinese leaders indicated the delay was temporary while China reassesses safety
at existing and proposed plants. But a Chinese government official indicated this
week that proposals for new plants in inland provinces like Hubei, Hunan,
Jiangxi and Jilin would be “put on hold for some time.”
New nuclear generation targets, according to People’s Daily,
will be included in energy development guidelines within China’s 12th Five-Year
Plan by the end of March.