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Nuclear China
By George Bell
China’s not just a developing nuclear “could be”; rather, the country is a full-blown nuclear powerhouse to contend with…and is growing by the day.
As of November 2007, the country had 11 operating reactors, five under construction and plans to build 30 new rectors by 2020.1 Much of the nuclear push comes from the simple fact that China knows it must clean up its act environmentally, if even for nothing more than pure economics. The World-Nuclear Association estimates that China sees GDP losses of 3-7% each year - due to pollution. And with the Olympics just around the corner in Beijing, China is certainly laying on the environmental “good news” in a worldwide push for positive press.
The country’s freshest wave of nuclear news came from the announcement that French firm Areva locked down an $11.9 USD billion deal to build two new reactors in the Asian country.
With the price tag nearing $8 billion-euros, the deal is certainly one of the largest the nuclear community has ever witnessed. This type of news is becoming common hat in China though, as seen in the four additional reactors the country signed contracts for earlier in the year. American conglomerates Westinghouse Electric and Shaw Group Inc. were the contract winners.
With the rise of nuclear power in China though, another problem is also growing. China simply does not have enough uranium to power all of the reactors on the drawing board. Presently, the country relies mostly on imported uranium to fuel the reactors, with the bulk coming from Russia, Kazakhstan and Nambia.
However, the Russian company Tenex recently threatening many companies (and countries) with the renegotiation of uranium prices… Should Tenex begin to strong arm end-users on a global basis (including China), Canada could quickly come into play as a major source of uranium for the Asian country.
Case in point, “In 2007 CNNC commissioned Sparton Resources of Canada with the Beijing No.5 Testing Institute to undertake advanced trials on leaching uranium from coal ash out of the Xiaolongtang power station in Yunnan.” 2
Clearly, China is doing everything it can to move forward with the development of nuclear reactors, the country is even appeasing the United States. The country was even one of the U.S. Department of Energy’s flagship Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) partners. 3
Really, China is well positioned in North America to continue establishing solid uranium-trade partnerships with both the U.S. and Canada. The future will likely only bring more headlines of new reactors in China… and with it, future sales for uranium too.
1 Areva clinches $12 bln nuclear deal from China http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/areva-wins-12-bln-china/story.aspx?guid=%7B58C4D492-9E77-41E9-9DB2-F90CE419E7EC%7D
2 Nuclear Power in China: World Nuclear Association http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf63.html
3 GNEP http://www.gnep.energy.gov/
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