China suspends all new nuclear plants, orders safety review

[deminks]

Source: Washington Post

BEIJING — In a dramatic reversal, China’s State Council, or cabinet, announced Wednesday that it was suspending approval for all new nuclear power plants until the government could issue revised safety rules, in light of the unfolding crisis at the Fukushima nuclear facility in Japan.

The State Council, chaired by Premier Wen Jiabao, also announced the government would conduct safety checks at the country’s existing nuclear facilities and those under construction, according to a brief statement issued after the meeting and reported by the state-run Xinhua News Agency.

“We will temporarily suspend approval of nuclear power projects, including those in the preliminary stages of development,” the statement said.

With 13 nuclear reactors in operation, at least 26 others under construction, and more in the planning stage, China has by far the world’s most ambitious nuclear power program. But that program has attracted little or no public debate or scrutiny in this authoritarian country where decisions are handed down by the ruling elite and most traditional media is tightly controlled.

Last week, when the crisis in Japan first began, Zhang Lijun, China’s vice minister for environmental protection, told reporters that there would be no change in China’s nuclear plans. “Some lessons we learn from Japan will be considered in the making of China’s nuclear power plans,” he said. “But China will not change its determination and plan for developing nuclear power.”





Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/china-suspends-all-new-nuclear-plants-orders-safety-review/2011/03/16/ABZHUld_story.html

[Mimosa]

1. They're smarter than the US on this. n/t

[nc4bo]

4. +++1. nt

[OhioChick]

6. They surely are n/t

[lovuian]

8. they are starting to realize they have earthquakes too

this is quite a disaster

[WatsonT]

9. Or they have virtually no environmental regulations

and so can continue to rely on coal for the time-being.

Far more people die in china from coal than will ever die from nuclear power:

More likely they're concerned about losing their investment.

[Poll_Blind]

2. The lack of a major safety review by the U.S.is deeply telling.

Or did we initiate one? I haven't read a thing about it if we have.

Even the slave-nation of China seems to give more of a shit about their people than our government. It's not like Obama is the cause of it: This sort of disregard has been going on a long time before him. It's one of the things I'd hoped he'd change though.

PB

[Mimosa]

12. +100, Poll_Blind. n/t

[felix_numinous]

3. Uranium 235

has a half life of 700 -million- years. Plutonium 239 half life is 24 thousand years. Just these facts alone are staggering, to be using these substances at all. I know so many scientists and very educated people who are perfectly comfortable with the concept of using these elements, but I am not. It is very simple. I do not like them being used for weaponry also, the depleted uranium is making some parts of this Earth very dangerous to live in.

The risk to me outweighs the benefit, and if this planet is approaching an unstable period with seas rising and Earth changes, to me it is suicidal to be keeping these dangerous plants in operation near faults and low lying areas, to start with. The US too, and indeed around the world, should stop and re evaluate every operating plant.

[ehrnst]

5. "where decisions are handed down by the ruling elite & most traditional media is tightly controlled"

Sounds like we're ahead of China in something...

[jakeXT]

7. passive cooling

U.S. and international firms are banking on these new reactor designs that use so-called "passive cooling" to remove heat from a reactor, rather than the kind of active cooling system that failed at Daiichi when the system's cooling water intake pumps and diesel generators were knocked out by a 30-foot tsunami.

http://news.discovery.com/tech/nuclear-reactor-designs-future-110316.html

[RedCloud]

10. the all mighty free market system has failed us again

[reformist2]

11. There goes the Republicans' ultimate defense!