Designed for the supply of electricity, heat and desalination, the 200MWt ACPR50S reactor can be used on islands or in coastal areas, or for offshore oil and gas exploration.
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China has come out with a white paper on dealing with nuclear strikes and accidents in nuclear power plants, which details policies and measures relating to nuclear emergency preparedness while highlighting a rational, coordinated and balanced nuclear security approach, state media said on Wednesday.
To that end, the white paper says China will build and maintain national nuclear emergency capabilities commensurate with the safe and efficient development of nuclear energy.
“Our cooperation with Russian Federation is developing dynamically and we have achieved certain results”, said Xu Dazhe, chairman of the regulatory agency that oversees the development of nuclear energy in China.
Recently, China General Nuclear Power (CGN) signed a strategic cooperation agreement with China Shipbuilding Industry (CSIC) for the development of the offshore nuclear power platform.
Three national-level nuclear emergency response training bases have also been set up.
China is the second nation to construct floating reactors for civilian purposes.
“At this rate, we can reach the goal of raising the installed nuclear power capacity to 58 GW with an additional 30 GW under construction by 2020 as planned”, Xu said.
The CNNC plant is expected to start operations in 2019 and CGN’s the following year, according to their statements.
Currently China has 30 nuclear power generating units with a capacity of 28 million GW and another 24 units are under construction, all of which are on land.
There is also a plan to build a new national nuclear emergency rescue team of 320 members to respond to serious nuclear accidents and worldwide rescue operations.
The capital Beijing intends to increase its installed atomic power capacity to 58GW by 2020, for which it will have another 30GW under construction.
But the pace of building, which resumed last year after a four-year suspension in the wake of the meltdown at Japan’s Fukushima plant in March 2011, has triggered concerns among even Chinese experts.
It said China placed “equal emphasis” on development and safety.
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But Dr Lin Boqiang, director of Xiamen University’s Energy Economics Research Centre, said the White Paper is comprehensive in its plans to prevent and tackle nuclear emergencies, having drawn lessons from the Fukushima disaster, and the key to success of the White Paper proposals lies in the implementation.
