[cdn-nucl-l] China Wants US Reactor

[Randal Leavitt <randal.leavitt@rogers.com>]

http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/28645/story.htm

US Says China to Lead Way in Nuclear Energy

CHINA: December 20, 2004

BEIJING - Outgoing US Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said on Friday 
China would emerge a leader in nuclear energy and called for further 
cooperation between the two countries in developing alternative 
sources of power.

But he made no mention of Washington's decision on the first-ever sale 
of powerful US-made nuclear reactors to China.

China's aim to expand its nuclear power generation capability and 
moves to embrace the newest generation of nuclear reactors were very 
impressive, he told an audience of students at the prestigious 
Tsinghua University.

"China is going to emerge in this century as a global leader in 
nuclear energy," he said during a two-day visit to Beijing.

"We hope we can learn more from your progress in this area so that it 
might be possible for us in America to see an expansion of nuclear 
energy in the years ahead," said Abraham, who is due to be replaced by 
treasury deputy secretary Samuel Bodman.

Beijing, struggling with power shortages that pose a threat to 
economic growth, has outlined an ambitious plan to build dozens of 
reactors over the next couple of decades and quadruple its nuclear 
power capacity to 36,000 megawatts by 2020.

The government hopes nuclear power will account for about 4 percent of 
total output by 2020 from around 1.7 percent.

A senior US official said in October Washington would likely approve 
the reactor sale to China in the next few months.

Approval would be a victory for Pittsburgh-based, British-owned 
Westinghouse Electric Co., which applied in February to build two of 
its 1,100 megawatt, next-generation AP1000 reactors in China.

Nils Diaz, chairman of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said at 
that time the United States was expected to ask China not to sell the 
next-generation nuclear technology to countries such as Iran and North 
Korea.

Former US President Bill Clinton cleared the way for US reactor sales 
to China in 1998 under a bilateral cooperation pact after Beijing 
promised to stop selling to Iran.

But in the past two years, US officials have said Beijing might be 
backing away from that commitment. As recently as April, the 
administration imposed sanctions on five Chinese firms for trading 
with Iran, which Washington has accused of developing nuclear weapons, 
a charge Tehran denies.

Abraham said it was essential that China and the United States work 
together to ensure adequate global energy supplies given they 
accounted for a third of world energy consumption.

Beijing and Washington had agreed in January to form a US-China Energy 
Policy Dialogue to enhance bilateral cooperation in areas including 
energy efficiency and renewable energy, he said.

"We are now preparing to move forward on a policy level," Abraham 
said, adding this initially meant building on the work of 
international partnerships to which China and the US already belong.

Abraham met Chinese vice premier Zeng Peiyan on Thursday, but no 
details on the discussions were available from the US embassy.

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Randal Leavitt        gnupg public key: bbbad04d
Registered User 267646 at http://counter.li.org/