Chinese nuclear industry's overseas push

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Chinese nuclear industry's overseas push​

ANANTH KRISHNAN
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The announcement from China's biggest nuclear power firm that it was in talks to set up a one-gigawatt plant in Pakistan underscores the rising overseas ambitions of China's nuclear power industry, say analysts.

Following an unprecedented expansion since 2005, and with more than 28 power reactors slated to be built in China within the next 10 years, Chinese firms are now increasingly turning to overseas markets.

Pakistan, according to analysts and officials, is serving as a launch pad for the industry's overseas ambitions.

The state-run China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), which is involved in four nuclear power plant projects – another in the talks stage — in Pakistan, is investing 800 billion yuan ($117.6 billion) to build 10 reactors in China by 2020. The company operates seven of China's 11 running power reactors — which have a combined capacity of 9,100 MW, accounting for one per cent of China's energy needs. Capacity is forecast to reach up to 80,000 MW by 2020, or five per cent of the energy requirements.

Since June, when Ye Qizhen, an analyst with the CNNC, said in a statement the company was "basically ready to export a mega nuclear power plant", CNNC officials have been pressing Beijing to give it the go-ahead to begin work on a "mega plant" in Pakistan. However, following international concerns after the CNNC's announcement in March that it had signed deals to build two 300 MW reactors in Pakistan, the status of a fifth mega deal was unclear.

The CNNC has, in the past decade, emerged among a group of state-run firms in the energy sector that have an increasing influence in foreign policy, even overriding diplomatic interests, says a recent report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

According to Dean Knox, an analyst with SIPRI, the CNNC had been pressuring the government to support an overseas expansion starting in Pakistan. The government, he said, initially resisted the pressure, prompted by China's joining of the 46-member Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) in 2004 and international concerns over Pakistan's proliferation record. But following a waiver granted to the civilian nuclear agreement between India and the United States, the Chinese government's "political will to block the CNNC project evaporated", according to SIPRI.

Earlier this year, the CNNC signed deals with Pakistan to build two 300 MW power reactors, Chashma-3 and Chashma-4, following the two power reactors it has already built.

The CNNC's announcement on Monday that talks were under way for a fifth one-GW plant, estimated at 14 billion yuan ($2 billion) was not immediately confirmed by officials. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Jiang Yu said China had notified the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of the deals for the two 300 MW reactors, and "invited the IAEA to exercise safeguards and oversight of this project". She did not, however, deny a deal for a fifth plant was in the works, only telling reporters "to check with the company".

 

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China, Pakistan civilian nuclear cooperation consistent with int'l obligations: Chinese FM​

Source: Xinhua [10:22 September 22 2010]Comments
Civilian nuclear energy cooperation between China and Pakistan is consistent with both nations' international obligations, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said Tuesday.

Jiang made the remarks at a regular news briefing in Beijing when responding to reporters' questions concerning a China-Pakistan nuclear power project.

Jiang said China has informed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of the relevant information concerning the project and has requested the UN nuclear watchdog's safeguards and supervision of the project.

In recent years, China and Pakistan have cooperated in civilian nuclear energy projects, Jiang said, adding that the cooperation is for peaceful purposes.

 

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Atom body should address China-Pakistan deal -- U.S.​

(Reuters) - A senior U.S. official suggested on Wednesday the 46-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) should address Chinese plans to build two new reactors in Pakistan, one of the few countries outside a global anti-nuclear weapons pact.

The comments by Thomas D'Agostino, U.S. Under Secretary for Nuclear Security, came a day after China indicated it may see no need to seek approval from the NSG, some of whose members have voiced qualms about the plan to build two new reactors at Pakistan's Chasma nuclear energy complex.

China joined the 35-year-old NSG, which seeks to ensure nuclear exports are not diverted for military purposes, in 2004.

On Tuesday, Beijing gave its firmest government confirmation yet of plans to build the two new reactors for nuclear-armed Pakistan, saying it was based on a contract in 2003, shortly before it joined the NSG.

The expansion of China's nuclear ties with Pakistan has ruffled Washington, Delhi and other capitals worried about Pakistan's history of spreading nuclear weapons technology covertly, its domestic instability, and the potential exceptions created in international non-proliferation regulations.

To receive nuclear exports, all nations except the five officially recognised atomic weapons states must usually place all nuclear sites under safeguards of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, NSG rules say.

NUCLEAR SAFEGUARDS

When the United States sealed its nuclear supply accord with India in 2008, it won a waiver from such NSG rules after contentious talks in which China and some other group members raised misgivings, since New Delhi is outside the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and has a nuclear arsenal.

Pakistan has also shunned the NPT.

Washington and other governments have said China should at least seek a similar waiver for the Pakistan deal.

Asked about the Pakistani reactor plans, D'Agostino told reporters during an IAEA meeting in Vienna he did not want to comment on specifics, but added: "We look to engage with China on these particular issues... my focus is to use the framework of the mechanisms that we have in the Nuclear Suppliers Group...

"We are going to use the Nuclear Suppliers Group to the best of our abilities and use all of the tools that we have in that forum to address specific nuclear arrangements that are made, whether it is with China, Pakistan or a variety of other countries...," D'Agostino said.

Israel and North Korea are the only other countries outside the 40-year-old Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Asked whether the planned reactors should be under the supervision of the IAEA, D'Agostino said: "I believe in the end that all reactors involved in civil uses should be under IAEA safeguards..."

China's Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday Beijing had invited the IAEA to "exercise safeguards and oversight of this project."

But a diplomat familiar with IAEA procedures suggested it was up to Pakistan, not China, to ask it to get involved.

 

[LETHALFORCE]

Toys and baby food was not enough now Chinese will be killing even more people with their exported junk.

 

[SHASH2K2]

Duplicate post Hence deleting .