scholarly journals The governance of nuclear power in China

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-46
Author(s):  
Philip Andrews-Speed

Abstract China has the third largest fleet of nuclear power plants in the world, totalling more than 45 GWe at the end of 2019. With the current high rate of growth, its capacity will soon overtake that of France. The country’s nuclear power industry has suffered no serious accidents to date. Nevertheless, the poor safety record of some other heavy industries in China, combined with the rapid growth of civil nuclear power capacity, has raised concerns over the industry’s ability to prevent a serious accident. The organization, development and governance of China’s nuclear power industry reflects the high strategic importance that the government has placed on the industry over several decades. At the same time, it has taken steps to address domestic and international concerns over its ability to effectively govern nuclear safety and security. The country has become party to most major treaties and conventions relating to nuclear matters and has frequent interaction with the International Atomic Energy Agency. Despite many significant steps taken by the government, a number of questions remain concerning: the capacity and independence of the National Nuclear Safety Administration; the relatively incoherent nature of the body of laws, regulations and rules that govern nuclear safety and security; the absence of a clear legal basis for managing civil nuclear liability, especially in the context of an accident with transboundary consequences; and the quality of public participation, especially in the case of planned nuclear power plants.

Heritage ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 2054-2080
Author(s):  
Dirk H. R. Spennemann

During the late 1970s and early 1980s, the German nuclear power industry came under considerable socio-political pressure from the growing environmental and anti-nuclear movement. As part of a diversified public relations strategy, the Kraftwerk Union (KWU, later Siemens) as the main manufacturer of nuclear power plants distributed pre-printed QSL cards to amateur radio enthusiasts. These cards carried images of the latest nuclear power plants built by KWU. This paper examines the history, iconography and distribution of these QSL cards in the context of the heritage of the German nuclear power industry. It is the first study of its kind to examine the heritage significance of QSL cards.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 5270
Author(s):  
SungSig Bang ◽  
SangYun Park

The Korean Government has been implementing a nuclear phase-out policy since 2017. Nuclear power plants accounted for 30.0% of the total power generation in 2016; this figure fell to 25.9% at the end of 2019, and the average Capacity Factor (CF) of a nuclear power plant approximately dropped from 89.1% to 69.2%. The nuclear phase-out policy presents severe consequences for the sustainable management of the nuclear power industry. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to analyze the effect of a decrease in the nuclear capacity factor under the nuclear phase-out policy on the depreciation cost per unit using the Straight-Line Method (SLM) and Decelerated Depreciation Method (DDM) and to provide recommendations from a sustainable management perspective. The results show that the decrease in CF of nuclear power plants has a negative impact on sustainable development of the nuclear power industry. DDM is more beneficial than the SLM during this initial stage of depreciation under the nuclear phase-out policy. In addition, in the early stages of projects or immediately after attracting large-scale investments, DDM can offer more positive signs for stockholders by calculating a smaller net loss or a higher net profit.


Author(s):  
Zhiyi Yang ◽  
Yimin Chong ◽  
Chun Li ◽  
Jiajia Zhang

New nuclear safety objectives and principles are being studied in main nuclear power countries and organizations after Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear accident, to further improve the safety level of nuclear power plants (NPPs). Based on International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Specific Safety Requirements (No.SSR-2/1), “Safety of Nuclear Power Plants: Design” (HAF102-2016) is issued in China. The concept “design extension condition (DEC)” is put forward, which is intend to enhance the plant’s capability to withstand accidents that are more severe than Design Basis Accidents (DBA). DEC could include conditions without significant fuel degradation (DEC-A in this paper) and conditions with core melting (DEC-B in this paper), e.g. severe accident. In this paper, the DEC-A and its application was discussed preliminarily, firstly, the development and connotation was introduced, then the identification of DEC-A, and the safety analysis principles of DEC-A were mainly described. This study may play a valuable role for implementation of new nuclear safety requirements in China.


NDT World ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 29-31
Author(s):  
Aleksey Polkovnikov

In the nuclear power industry, there are various requirements for NDT laboratories depending on the type of work performed. The article reviews the following types of appraisal: 1) laboratory appraisal at the head materials science organization; 2) appraisal of NDT laboratories during the construction of nuclear power plants; 3) evaluation of the measurement condition in testing laboratories; accreditation of testing laboratories for product conformity assessment. The study concludes that presence of various requirements for NDT laboratories in the nuclear power industry introduces a certain ambiguity in obtaining the needed certificates


2007 ◽  
Vol 129 (10) ◽  
pp. 26-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bridget Mintz Testa

This article reviews that for the first time in a generation, utilities are starting the regulatory process to build nuclear reactors. There has been a virtual moratorium on new nuclear power plants in the United States during the past generation, and it has many causes. But one significant factor in the industry's decline was the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s licensing process. There are now dozens of applications being submitted and approved for 20-year license renewals for established nuclear power plants. But before the nuclear power industry truly can be said to be reborn, new reactors must be constructed. The new rules allow for an early site permit and for a separate combined construction and operating license. Although the commission invited the nuclear power industry to test the two new processes when they were first announced, no company volunteered. One of the thorniest technical issues faced by the early applicants so far involves a new way of calculating, for a specific plant site, the ground motion that would result from a seismic event. When older plants were designed and built, the best available technique for these calculations was deterministic.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Le Li ◽  
Zhihui Zhang ◽  
Chao Gao ◽  
Fei Zhou ◽  
Guangqiang Ma

Abstract With the development of digital instrument and control technology for nuclear power plants in recent decades, communication networks have become an important part of safety digital control systems, which takes charge in data exchange between the various sub-systems, and extremely impact on the reliability and safety of the entire I&C system. Traditional communication systems where some special features, such as reliability, safety, real-time, certainty, and independence are not strictly required are various illustrated. However, how to implement a communication system in a safety I&C system is rarely stated in current research. In this research, a reliable safety communication system applied in nuclear power plants is designed and analyzed. The five key characteristics of nuclear safety communication networks are explained, followed by explanation of how to achieve these characteristics. The analysis and verification of the designed system are also stated in this paper, which contributes to proving that the designed nuclear safety communication system could applied in the nuclear power plants.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Jinghan Zhang ◽  
Jun Zhao ◽  
Jiejuan Tong

Nuclear safety goal is the basic standard for limiting the operational risks of nuclear power plants. The statistics of societal risks are the basis for nuclear safety goals. Core damage frequency (CDF) and large early release frequency (LERF) are typical probabilistic safety goals that are used in the regulation of water-cooled reactors currently. In fact, Chinese current probabilistic safety goals refer to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and they are not based on Chinese societal risks. And the CDF and LERF proposed for water reactor are not suitable for high-temperature gas-cooled reactors (HTGR), because the design of HTGR is very different from that of water reactor. And current nuclear safety goals are established for single reactor rather than unit or site. Therefore, in this paper, the development of the safety goal of NRC was investigated firstly; then, the societal risks in China were investigated in order to establish the correlation between the probabilistic safety goal of multimodule HTGR and Chinese societal risks. In the end, some other matters about multireactor site were discussed in detail.


Author(s):  
William D. Rezak

One of America’s best kept secrets is the success of its nuclear electric power industry. This paper presents data which support the construction and operating successes enjoyed by energy companies that operate nuclear power plants in the US. The result—the US nuclear industry is alive and well. Perhaps it’s time to start anew the building of nuclear power plants. Let’s take the wraps off the major successes achieved in the nuclear power industry. Over 20% of the electricity generated in the United States comes from nuclear power plants. An adequate, reliable supply of reasonably priced electric energy is not a consequence of an expanding economy and gross national product; it is an absolute necessity before such expansion can occur. It is hard to imagine any aspect of our business or personal lives not, in some way, dependent upon electricity. All over the world (in 34 countries) nuclear power is a low-cost, secure, safe, dependable, and environmentally friendly form of electric power generation. Nuclear plants in these countries are built in six to eight years using technology developed in the US, with good performance and safety records. This treatise addresses the success experienced by the US nuclear industry over the last 40 years, and makes the case that this reliable, cost-competitive source of electric power can help support the economic engine of the country and help prevent experiences like the recent crisis in California. Traditionally, the evaluation of electric power generation facility performance has focused on the ability of plants to produce at design capacity for high percentages of the time. Successful operation of nuclear facilities is determined by examining capacity or load factors. Load factor is the percentage of design generating capacity that a power plant actually produces over the course of a year’s operation. This paper makes the case that these operating performance indicators warrant renewed consideration of the nuclear option. Usage of electricity in the US now approaches total generating capacity. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has pre-approved construction and operating licenses for several nuclear plant designs. State public service commissions are beginning to understand that dramatic reform is required. The economy is recovering and inflation is minimal. It’s time, once more, to turn to the safe, reliable, environmentally friendly nuclear power alternative.


2012 ◽  
Vol 260-261 ◽  
pp. 103-106
Author(s):  
Yi Chun Lin ◽  
Yung Nane Yang

The ripples of the tsunami crisis in Japan triggered introspections of nuclear plant safety issues in the worldwide. Many countries have claimed the suspension of nuclear power plants. However, some countries such as Taiwan, under nearly 99% energy is exported, the disasters force government and citizen to face the importance of nuclear safety, especially the neighborhoods nearby the nuclear power plants. We have to face the nuclear safety since there is no other alternative energy presently. The 3rd nuclear power plant located in the south of Taiwan, which has the same geographic features with Fukushima, Japan. Presently, there is no precedent in Taiwan of precaution and rescue team and civil supervised mechanic on nuclear security issue. This paper will review according to transparent information, public participation and cross-organization cooperation to propose the execution and work division principles, including information monitor, educational propagation, hide and evacuation, emergence aid and care, rear and refuge service. The ultimate target is to establish self-governance inside nearby neighborhood to confront nuclear disaster at the critical moment.


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