martedì 6 novembre 2012

The Green Blob: The Nuclear Issue

Stamate Cristina    17 novembre 2012


China’s future development of nuclear energy”
China has a good system or the nuclear power industry and is developing the production of nuclear energy in accordance with the ” Medium and Long term nuclear power development plan 2005-2020” approved by the State Council. The plan give specific recommendation and development programs for the future of energy nuclear in China.


The topics of the plan are:
1 Does China need to develop nuclear power?
2 Is China capable of enhancing the development of nuclear power?
3 What are the main development areas of China's nuclear power?

1. Nuclear power is an economic, clean and efficient energy. Nuclear power stations contribute to slow down global warming and produce less pollution than coal-powered reactors. Development of nuclear energy can provide a stable supply of electricity and reduce problems on logistics and environment due to the production and transportation of coal
2.Yes she is capable to develop the nuclear energy, because the resources of uranium in China are rich. Furthermore about half of the land in China has not been prospected for uranium yet. China began to develop nuclear power since the 70s and the first nuclear power plant began operation in the early 90s. Until now, china has 6 nuclear power plants with 11 reactors. They maintain a power capacity of more the 9 million kilowatts.
In addition, China had a considerable experience in exploring nuclear technology and establishing safety regulation and emergency response system.
3. As I have already written China current nuclear power capacity is 9 million kilowatts but this represent only 2% of the country power generation capacity. According to the Medium and Long Term Nuclear Power Development Plan (2005-2020) China will build more nuclear plants in 13 priority areas, both inland and coastal.
The aim is to reach a total nuclear power capacity of 40 million killowatts by 2020 that is the 6% of the country’s total power generation capacity. In addiction will be introduced a new pressurized water type of reactor that will have multiple safety protection system,such as four safety barrier and will provide a very high level of safety for nuclear plants.
During the course of nuclear power construction, China will also construct radioactive waste disposal sites in parallel to handle the wastes resulted from the development of nuclear power. By 2020, an underground repository for storing high-level radioactive wastes will also be built.
In the long run China will continue the development of nuclear energy focusing on thermal nuclear reactors, but at the same time expediting the study of fast neutron reactor and nuclear fusion reactor.
    In my opinion, even if China masters the design and manufacturing technology and is trying to carry out a sustainable development but the risk of nuclear disaster and of environment contamination is still present. By the way, even if I don’t be pleased about the idea of nuclear energy I appreciate that China is putting a lot of effort in their projects trying to develop a new way to produce energy without damaging the environment.

1 commento:

  1. Great post. I'm VERY disappointed at the UK POLICY - and that the government will pay around £100 per MWh for nuclear-generated energy, more than for other kinds of energy.
    A couple of language points:
    In addition (NOT addiction!!)
    ...We all remember the Fukushima disaster. And not SO long (time) ago, the Chernobyl disaster, where people, nearly 20 years later, are still fighting (with) devastation, poverty and diseases like cancer.
    Another way to produce environmentalLY-friendly energy is possible. We all know that clean energy could be MADE (done) with wind farm and solar panels. But there are a lot of other wayS to create green energy like using the energy released by waves or by high tides and so on...

    RispondiElimina