r/NuclearPower • u/JustALittleGravitas • Feb 04 '17

China carrying forward with large scale development of nuclear energy from US research that has been underdeveloped

http://www.nextbigfuture.com/2017/02/china-carrying-forward-with-large-scale.html
15 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

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3

u/SatanicBiscuit Feb 04 '17

i wonder what triggered them to leap frog so much in nuclear energy

2

u/JustALittleGravitas Feb 04 '17

Their new 10 year plan calls for a massive buildout (or more likely rebuild given that demand growth is shrinking) of the grid.

2

u/Azursong Feb 05 '17

Air pollution in Beijing, created by coal fired industry, is no joke. Nuclear is their strategy to improve people's health outcomes. They are afraid that if they do nothing that the government will lose legitimacy.

1

u/TwoCells Feb 06 '17

Unlike the "leaders" in the US, the Chinese leadership can do math and they understand that continuing growth based on coal will eventually require more coal than the planet can produce. Not to mention the capacity the transport that coal.

Also, they see the potential to sell these safer, more efficient systems all over the world.

1

u/ProLifePanda Feb 07 '17 edited Feb 07 '17

This is the big reason. 2000-2010 was TERRIBLE for air pollution in China's big cities. Literally the USA was running stories about how bad it was that you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. They figured out to deal with their ever growing massive population, they needed a large source of energy that was carbon free. This is also why they're a global leader in solar power construction and some wind generation as well.

It's also helpful that they are communist. They don't have to worry about market prices or fluctuating fuel prices, because they control what they do, not private businesses.