Safety top priority as China nuclear goes global

Weng Xuanyan knew little about Chernobyl 11 years ago, but the word "nuclear" instinctively gave him chills.

Weng was serving as chief of the Communist Party Committee of the secluded Hongxing village in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. In 2005, the Fangchenggang city government sought his help in persuading the villagers to relocate and make room for a nuclear plant.

Unsure about the safety of the plant, Weng and his fellow villagers were moved anyway, to a new village a couple of kilometers away from their old homes.

"We needed electricity back then. We were desperate," said Weng, 65 years old now.

The old Hongxing village did not have access to electricity until 30 years ago, and blackouts were routine even in the early 2000s. Everyone carried a flashlight after nightfall, according to Weng.

Soon after construction began, however, the villagers' doubts slowly ebbed. Confidence grew from little, sometimes unnoticeable, details in the beginning.

"We went to the construction site. Everyone wore safety ropes and helmets, which was not a very common practice back then," Weng said. "High safety standards at the construction site eventually provided the heavy dose of reassurance we needed. Seeing is believing."

By the time phase I construction began in 2010, most fear was gone, he said.

Weng went as far as urging his two sons to return home from Guangxi's neighboring Guangdong Province and become construction workers at the Fangchenggang nuclear plant. "It is actually safer here," he said.

Power is no longer a problem now for Weng and his fellow villagers. Unit 1 reactor of the Fangchenggang plant began commercial operation on Jan. 1 this year, with the Unit 2 reactor set to follow suit in the second half of 2016.

But Weng holds greater dreams now. "I hope my sons can take what they have learned over the last eight years and help build power plants across the world," he said.

Phase II construction of Unit 3 and Unit 4 of the Fangchenggang plant began in December last year. The two units, which will be based on China's indigenous Hualong One reactors, are the reference plant for the proposed Bradwell B plant in Essex in Britain.

"Their work here trained them well. I'm sure they and their Chinese coworkers can build a nuclear plant just as safe in Britain," Weng said.

The Fangchenggang plant is a miniature of China's nuclear sector, a latecomer in the world's nuclear industry but one that is quickly catching up.

During the past three decades, China is the only country in the world that has continued building new large-scale nuclear stations.

As of October 2015, the Chinese mainland had 27 nuclear power generating units in operation, with a total installed capacity of 25.5 million kilowatts, while another 25 units with installed capacity of 27.51 million kw had been under construction, according to a government white paper on China's nuclear emergency preparedness issued in late January.

The installed nuclear power capacity will reach 58 million kw in the Chinese mainland with an additional 30 million kw under construction by 2020, said the white paper.

China is also seeking to export its indigenous nuclear technologies to the international market.

Construction on the Hualong One project in Karachi of Pakistan has started and is going well. An agreement with Argentina was reached in November 2015, guaranteeing the use of Hualong One in the fifth nuclear plant in the country.

The white paper noted nuclear facilities and activities in China had been in a "safe and stable" state since the mid-1950s and safety of nuclear power stations was in a state of constant improvement.

Without a doubt, nuclear safety is a top priority for Chinese nuclear workers both at home and abroad.

"For the nuclear industry, safety is a 'red line' that none shall cross... We are literally walking on thin ice," said He Yu, chairman of China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN), which runs the Fangchenggang plant.

In an exclusive interview with Xinhua, He attributed China's sound nuclear safety records to the country's rigorous supervision and emergency management.

China has established complete set of laws and regulations for nuclear emergencies and is working to draft a nuclear safety law and an atomic energy law, according to He.

The government slowed approval for new nuclear power generators after the Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011, rolling out measures to ensure nuclear facility safety between 2011 and 2014.

The measures include inspections on all facilities in operation and under construction and improvements to the nuclear emergency response system.

Xian Chunyu, chief designer for the Hualong One nuclear reactor, said innovation is another source of China's nuclear safety.

Citing Hualong One as an example, Xian said the new reactor design is safer than previous builds.

"For now the United States and Europe boast the highest nuclear safety standards. We have merged their standards together to aim even higher," Xian said.

Boasting a 177-fuel-assembly core and a double-shell containment structure, Hualong One offers enhanced protection capabilities against seismic, commercial airplane crash and other plant emergencies.

"Nuclear accidents have no boundaries, and nothing related to nuclear emergency management can be taken lightly," Xian said.

"We, too, have learned from Chernobyl and Fukushima," he said.

Source: XINHUA