Pandza, Jasper

Abstract
Just days after the March 2011 Fukushima accident, China’s State Council suspended approvals of new nuclear power plants and created a range of rigorous measures aimed at improving the country’s nuclear-safety provisions. It was not until October 2012 that the council cautiously lifted the ban on new construction. Then-Premier Wen Jiabao announced that all newly approved reactors would need to meet third-generation criteria, meaning that they should have certain advanced inbuilt safety features lacking in most conventional second-generation reactors. China’s actions demonstrate a new resolve among its leadership to give greater consideration to the safety, rather than the economic benefits, of nuclear power. Fukushima caused concern that a similar accident in China would put the government’s nuclear programme, which is the fastest growing in the world, at serious risk. Of even greater concern was the possibility that an accident could strengthen opposition to the rule of the Communist Party.
Far-reaching changes in China’s nuclear-energy policy have been made, but the country has not moved away from its longstanding commitment to developing a plutonium-based nuclear fuel cycle, with spent-fuel reprocessing and fast-neutron reactors. The security and proliferation risks of conventional, uranium-fuelled light-water reactors (LWRs) are considered manageable. But nuclear reprocessing and fast reactors operating with plutonium-based fuel would create considerable proliferation challenges for China. This is because the plutonium could, in principle, be used in nuclear weapons.
One concern is that this kind of nuclear-energy fuel cycle could support China’s strategic-weapons programme. A related worry is that the subsequent export of reprocessing and fast-reactor technologies by China, running counter to international non-proliferation goals, would increase access to know-how and materials connected with nuclear weapons. Additionally, having a larger amount of weapons-usable fissile material in circulation would increase the challenge of protecting it from terrorists and other malicious actors.
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