A price has to be paid for the myth of nuclear power|Poon Siu-to
An accident taking place in Taishan nuclear power plant,130km away from Hong Kong, has touched off fierce discussion. And to our surprise, there are in fact four nuclear power plants less than 200km away from Hong Kong (Daya Bay, Ling Ao, Taishan and Yangjiang). If by any remote chance a disastrous accident happens in one of them, how should Hong Kong respond?
Citing the document of Framatome, the company that designs Taishan nuclear power plant, CNN reported that “there is an imminent menace constituted in” Taishan nuclear plant, but the Chinese authorities raised the upper specification limit of radiation gauged outside the nuclear power plant lest it might shut down. The China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs pointed out that nothing unusual of the peripheral radiation level of the plant was found, and “the safety is secure”; citing the National Nuclear Safety Administration, the Hong Kong Security Bureau also ensured the public Taishan nuclear power plant is safe without leakage of radioactivity. China’s official media quoted words from the person in charge of the National Nuclear Safety Administration, indicating that the rise in the radiation level of the circuit of plant unit 1 has something to do with the breakage of fuel rods; because of the process of production, transportation and loading of fuel, it is an “unavoidable common phenomenon” that fuel rods are slightly damaged in the operation of plant units; there are many cases all around the world that a nuclear power plant keeps running with fuel rods ruined.
The radiation level does not have direct impact on Hong Kong, but even if it does, what can average citizens do about it? Even the Hong Kong government had to inquire it of the Beijing and Guangdong authorities after seeing the news report on it and being closely questioned by Hong Kong media, and the information it obtained was no different from what the citizens got, not to mention any measures in response to it.
In fact, what we should be concerned about is not only whether Taishan nuclear power plant has ever had an accident, but also the strategy of development of nuclear power in China. How many nuclear power plants are there in China? According to the Report On The Development Of China’s Nuclear Energy 2021 by the China Nuclear Energy Association, up to the end of December 2020, the number of plant units of commercial operation amounted to 48, the total capacity of which was 49,880 thousand kilowatts that ranked number 3 in the world. The total energy generated last year ranked number 2. Besides, 11 new nuclear plant units have started running recently, with production capacity amounting to 12,604 thousand kilowatts. The report goes on like announcing good news, saying that both the number of plant units and their capacity have ranked number one in the world for years.
What the report means is that there are 48 operating nuclear power plants in China, and the number increases every year; once the new nuclear power plant projects are completed, there will be 59 nuclear power plants. However, with so many nuclear power plants in operation, the total amount of electricity generated only accounts for less than 5% of the total energy supply in the country.
Most of these nuclear power plants are built in coastal areas that are most densely populated and most economically developed with big cities in the neighborhood, which means time bombs are buried in the peripheries of various big cities. Take Hong Kong as an example. There are four nuclear power plants less than 200km away from Hong Kong, and minor accidents have occurred in them.
Some said there is no need to worry about it as the safety level will be upgraded on end with the technology of generating nuclear power getting more and more advanced today, and a lot of management experience accumulated with more and more nuclear power plants established. Maybe it is true, but an accident is an accident. The explosion of natural gas pipelines in the wet market in Hubei is a good example. Though natural gas has been used for many years and the technology has been mature, such an astounding accident could happen. Once an accident happens in a nuclear power plant that is in the immediate proximity of big cities, everyone knows pretty well how disastrous it would be. Is it worth the big risk to supply the 5% electricity? The Three-Miles Island accident in America, the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and the Fukushima nuclear calamity are all lessons worth learning.
Officials consider newly built nuclear power plants achievements
Why does China have to build so many nuclear power plants that are all situated along coastal areas? Since a large amount of sea water is needed to cool the nuclear reactors, most of them are built by the seas, and some by the rivers. Anyhow, these areas have immense demand for electricity. However, the reason why China has been developing nuclear power in recent years is more of the fact that the party leaders have a myth of nuclear power, deeming that a manifestation of advanced technology and that grasping the technology means China being a superpower of advanced technologies. As such, the Chinese officials consider the newly built nuclear power plants as important achievements, hence more political motives in driving the building of more nuclear power plants..
Another myth is about nuclear weapons. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had this saying as early as ages ago: “Atomic bombs are preferred to pants.” It means they would rather put their pants in pawn to produce an atomic bomb. Recently, Hu Xijin, editor in chief of the Global Times, put forward a suggestion levelled at the modernization of nuclear weapons and Space Force plans initiated by US President Biden that the People’s Liberation Army do the deployment in advance: “The large quantity of DF-41, JL-2 and JL-3 would be the mainstay of our strategic willpower. The number of our nuclear warheads has to be large enough to intimidate the US elites into shuddering whenever they come up with an idea of confronting China militarily.”
As the nuclear myths are very popular in the CCP officialdom, more and more nuclear power plants are built. However, a high price will probably have to be paid one day for such myths.
(Poon Siu-to, veteran journalist)
This article is translated from Chinese by Apple Daily.
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