China may be a world manufacturing hub, but they are also know for serious manufacturing abuses, rampant corruption, and taking highly dangerous ‘shortcuts’ that result in people getting killed. I will not post them here, but I have written on them before, and a simple Google search for “Chinese factory accidents” reveals quickly the ugly facts.
However, Channel News Asia reports that in addition to the foreign-made nuclear plants, China is now making her own nuclear plants.
China has powered up its first domestically developed nuclear reactor – the Hualong One – a significant step in Beijing’s attempts to become less dependent on Western allies for energy security and critical technology.
The reactor, which was connected to the national grid on Friday (Nov 27), can generate 10 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity each year and cut carbon emissions by 8.16 million tons, according to China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC).
“This marks China breaking the monopoly of foreign nuclear power technology and officially entering the technology’s first batch of advanced countries,” CNNC said in a statement.
Nuclear plants supplied less than 5 per cent of China’s annual electricity needs in 2019, according to the National Energy Administration, but this share is expected to grow as Beijing attempts to become carbon neutral by 2060.
Reducing its dependence on Western allies in critical high-tech sectors such as power generation is a key goal in Beijing’s “Made in China 2025” plan.
Billions of dollars in state subsidies have been given to Chinese companies to speed the process – a move that has angered China’s trade partners and sparked a protracted trade row with Washington.
Work on the Hualong One reactor started in 2015 and there are currently six other reactors under construction at home and abroad, state-owned plant operator CNNC said.
The Hualong One, deployed at a plant in east China’s Fujian province, will be put into commercial use by the end of the year after undergoing tests.
China has 47 nuclear plants with a total generation capacity of 48.75 million kilowatts – the world’s third-highest after the United States and France.
Beijing has invested billions of dollars to develop its nuclear energy sector in recent years as it struggles to wean its economy from coal.
Thirteen nuclear plants are under construction, more than in any other country, despite environmental and safety concerns. (source)
Note the part about safety concerns, because that is the main issue since nuclear power, while cheap and good, is a really serious thing if it goes wrong, because people die and nuclear radiation will poison the earth.
This is a video of Chinese noodle production. These are not real noodles. They are made from plastic and served as food.
Here is another video of “gutter oil”, which is human faeces mixed with garbage and cooked down to make a substitute cooking oil that is found in 10% of Chinese restaurants in China.
Here is an interesting documentary from Al-Jazeera about the notorious Chinese “landfills”. China is the world’s largest open dump, and countries around the world put their trash there. China doesn’t care and just lets it sit even as the filth poisons people.
Also, here is a compilation of accidents in China, which it is not just the accidents, but the absolute carelessness, indifference to human life, and chaos found in so many of them that dwarfs what one sees in the US.
These problems are just in CHINA alone directed at their OWN people. This does not include the “Chinese junk” that is sold to foreign nations such as the US.
Ask yourself, if China would feed her own people faeces and plastic and lie about it, which are small things by scale, does one really trust that such a large thing such as a nuclear plant will be built with integrity? Likewise, given how China treats her garbage, does one really believe that China can be trusted to safely dispose of toxic nuclear waste that often times is more dangerous than the actual material before it went into the reactors?
Now I hope I am wrong, but if trends are constant in Chinese history and actions, then it may be only a matter of time before not a foreign nation, but China herself has a series of multiple nuclear accidents that may do more damage than what any foreign army could do. Likewise, I would not trust any Chinese attempts at handling nuclear waste, since she as a trend barely cleans up her own trash from last night’s meal, let alone nuclear material.
One may recall that Chairman Mao proposed the “Great Leap Forward”, which turned into a “Great Leap Backward” that resulted in the deaths of millions of Chinese. Unfortunately, we may be witnessing this now, but with technology and in a much more serious scale involved.