Comment by defrost
14 days ago
TBH right now I'm wondering about the accuracy of the 2024 Wilson newsletter quote I gave (it could be true) as it stands in contrast to a 2015 Guardian article:
Proposals to build plants inland, as China ends a moratorium on new generators imposed after the Fukushima disaster in March 2011, are particularly risky, the physicist He Zuoxiu said, because if there was an accident it could contaminate rivers that hundreds of millions of people rely on for water and taint groundwater supplies to vast swathes of important farmlands.
- https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/25/china-nuclear-...
The context of "inland" here is near rivers and farmland that provide food and water for the population that live in dense urban areas nearer the coast.
Both could be true, just talking about different moratoriums, or one lifted then reimposed, both may have errors, etc.
It really needs a far better China watcher than myself to clarify.
Officials at the NEA technically removed the moratorium in 2014 [0] but it de facto still exists [1] given that they haven't been given priority in 5 Year Plans, massive inland projects like Toahuajiang have been mothballed, and the R&D has moved towards floating nuclear power plants instead.
It makes sense because the Chinese public is like any other public and very NIMBY and scared of meltdowns. The CCP is authoritarian, but they do take public sentiment into account.
Misinformation (some of which is government supported) like the Fukushima Water Discharge and the constant reporting about anti-Nuclear protests in Japan (in an attempt to bloody Japan's nose) also hurt the support of nuclear power in China [2]
[0] - https://fjb.nea.gov.cn/dtyw/jgdt/202311/t20231110_200899.htm...
[1] - https://power.m.ofweek.com/2021-04/ART-35007-8420-30494525.h...
[2] - https://www.wsj.com/world/asia/anti-japanese-feeling-rises-i...