China grapples with its own ‘Kudankulam’ protests
Venky Vembu
Mar 1, 2012
Firstpost
China is facing its own ‘Kudankulam’ moment: a people’s protest against a nuclear power plant that is still under construction, but has raised fears in the local populace ever since the Fukushima nuclear disaster last year.
http://www.facebook.com/nuclearfree
http://www.facebook.com/nukefree
The protest in Wangjiang village in Anhui province, one of China’s poorest, is directed at the Pengze nuclear power plant that is coming up in neighbouring Jiangxi province, along the mighty Yangtze river.
In that sense, it also has parallels with the ‘Mullaperiyar dam’ crisis in India, where the benefits from a project are seen to accrue predominantly to one State, whereas fears of a catastrophic accident are felt rather more in a neighbouring State.
Indicatively, to build the Three Gorges Dam, inarguably the most ambitious hydropower projects in the world.
The Pengze plant, which is not along the coast (unlike the one at Fukushima) but in an inland province, is one of an estimated 60 that China, ravenously hungry for energy, plans to commission by 2020 as it cuts back on polluting coal-based thermal power plants. Nuclear power accounts for barely 2 percent of China’s electricity production, but there are plans to ramp it up to 5 percent over the next decade.
If the protest at Wangjiang village intensifies, it could upset those ambitious plans, but given the nature of civil society protests in China and the low tolerance for such agitations, this may not get much traction once the government sets its mind to it.
Indicatively, to build the Three Gorges Dam, inarguably the most ambitious hydropower projects in the world, more than 1.2 million people were displaced – in many cases forcibly.
The dam that “tamed the Yangtze” – and realised one of Chinese leader Mao Zedong’s dreams – is now proving ecologically ruinous, but when the government wanted it done, it was done, even if the project was low on foresight.
In Wangjiang, villagers were awakened to the potential for disaster after Beijing reviewed safety procedures last year in the wake of the Fukushima meltdown.
But they didn’t organise street protests or demonstrations in the way the anti-nuclear protestors at Kudankulam project are doing.
Instead, they have been petitioning their local government authorities against the Pengze plant.
The local government leaders sent on the petition to provincial-level leaders (who in turn forwarded it to central level energy officials), and followed it up with a resolution passed in the local party congress voicing opposition to the Pengze plant.
The villagers, who are mostly farmers, accused Jiangxi province authorities of having fudged population density figures so as to secure approval for the plant.
Under Jiangxi provincial law, no approval can be given if more than 100,000 people reside within a 10-km radius of a nuclear power plant.
Wangjiang officials claim that that their village alone, which falls within 10 km of the plant has more than 150,000 people.
Protestors also cite the instances of recent seismic activity in the area – including an earthquake in 2011 that measured 4.6 on the Richter scale – to pitch their case that the plant is unsafe.
On the other hand, Jiangxi officials claim that the plant is supremely safe, and the only thing to ooze from the reactors will be economic prosperity for the surrounding local communities.
The safety of China’s nuclear plants was the subject of several WikiLeaks cables that were leaked, like radioactive waste, last year.
But as much as they reflected genuine concerns for safety, they were also seen to be an effort by the US energy giant Westinghouse to expand its marketshare in the lucrative Chinese nuclear power market by talking down the indigenous Chinese technology on the ground that it was dated and unsafe.
China, noted a cable from August 2008, is “vastly increasing the aggregate risk of its nuclear power fleet.” The cable, which took note of an interaction with Westinghouse China CEO, said that China’s indigenously built reactors – the CPR-1000, which were based on old Westinghouse technology from its AP1000 reactor – were gaining marketshare.
“Rather than building a fleet of state-of-the-art reactors,” the cable said, “China is assuring that they will be burdened with technology that by the end of its lifetime will be 100 years old.”
And by bypassing the “passive safety technology” of Westinghouse’s AP1000 – which shuts down a reactor automatically in the event of an accident and which it claimed was 100 times safer than China’s CPR-1000 – China was “vastly increasing the aggregate risk of its nuclear power fleet.”
Wangjiang villagers are perhaps giving voice to similar concerns about the safety of the Pengze plant – and to that extent are echoing the sentiment of the Kudankulam protesters in faraway Tamil Nadu. But that apart, the level of tolerance that the anti-nuclear ‘protestors’ enjoy in China will be a test of the leaders’ readiness to listen to anxiety over the plant.
For campaigners against the Kudankulam project, who perhaps feel that their grievances are not being heard, it may prove a contrasting case study in the nature of governmental response to popular protests.
Thursday, March 1, 2012
China nuclear protest builds steam - Pengze nuclear power station
China nuclear protest builds steam
By Leslie Hook in Wangjiang, Anhui province
2/28/2012 FT
For Wang Nianyu, a cotton farmer in Anhui province, China’s nuclear debate is right on his doorstep. From his patio he points across the Yangtze River to the Pengze nuclear power station, which has become a lightning rod for protest after the meltdown at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi plant last year.
“We only knew about the plant when we read about it in the newspapers,” says Mr Wang, 72, the former village head of this tiny hamlet. “Nuclear plants shouldn’t be this close to people.”
Organised public protest in China is rare, but growing, and Mr Wang is part of a groundswell of criticism of the Pengze plant.
China, which is the world’s biggest energy consumer, gets just 2 per cent of its power from its 15 nuclear reactors, according to the latest data. But this is expected to more than double in the next decade as it moves away from fossil fuels. Beijing is embarking on the world’s most dramatic nuclear expansion programme with 26 reactors under construction, and a further 51 planned and 120 proposed.
http://easss.com/nuclear
After the Fukushima accident, Beijing suspended approvals for new nuclear plants, announced a sweeping safety review, and started drafting new nuclear safety legislation.
While less visible, the response from Chinese living rooms as people watched images of the disaster unfold was just as important. Fears of radioactive fallout from Japan caused panicked runs on iodine used to treat people exposed to radiation and iodised salt used in cooking.
Nearly a year later, opposition to the Pengze plant has escalated to the point that the eastern province of Anhui province has issued a formal appeal to Beijing to halt construction on the plant, which is in neighbouring Jiangxi province but close to population centres in Anhui.
Other reactors under construction have also seen more vocal opposition.
Although the protests do not appear co-ordinated and no nationwide anti-nuclear lobby group exists, any public disturbance will raise anxiety in Beijing where leaders are increasingly worried about unrest.
He Zuoxiu, a prominent retired physicist who helped develop China’s nuclear programme in the 1960s, has been lobbying hard against the Pengze plant, and other proposed inland reactors, saying it shows how badly China’s nuclear power plans have over-reached.
“China has to stop its ‘Great Leap Forward’ approach to nuclear power,” says Mr He, referring to the disastrous industrialisation programme under Mao Zedong that left millions dead from famine. “China has to have nuclear energy – we need the power – but we need to slow down and take a more measured approach, and really learn the lessons of Fukushima.”
Officials say China’s commitment to nuclear power is unaltered, and the government argues that nuclear power will be essential as the country shifts away from coal and fossil fuels.
But almost a year on from Fukushima the new nuclear laws have yet to be published, leaving a big question mark for the global nuclear industry, which had been counting on China to drive demand for new reactors.
Some experts say the delay may be because no official wants to approve new nuclear plants before the Communist party leadership transition later this year. But even when the new laws are unveiled and China’s nuclear programme resumes in full, the shift in public attitudes could make it more difficult for reactors to gain Beijing’s approval in future.
The Pengze protests began when four retired bureaucrats from Wangjiang, a bustling city of 620,000 in Anhui, wrote a protest letter last June, saying the plant was too close to their town.
Although their petition was initially ignored by the Anhui government, which is planning several reactors itself, it was circulated privately and gradually gained a following among provincial and central leaders. Last last year, the town of Wangjiang submitted a formal petition to the Anhui government, which passed it up to the National Energy Administration in Beijing. Earlier this month, Anhui’s provincial congress also debated a motion expressing opposition to the Pengze plant.
The nuclear power station is one of three inland facilities that are about to begin construction. Mr He and other scientists have raised concerns over water supply and population density for China’s inland reactors. He says that the huge population living downstream along the Yangtze River would be threatened if there was a nuclear accident.
The Pengze nuclear plant is owned by four Chinese power and infrastructure companies, China Power Investment, Jiangxi Ganneng, Jiangxi Ganyu Expressway and Shenzhen Nanshan Power. The companies did not respond to requests for comment.
Whether or not the project goes ahead, it has already had a big impact on public perceptions of nuclear power in the surrounding areas. In the riverside hamlet of Shengli, the plant has become a daily topic of conversation. Since few villagers can read, one of Mr Wang’s neighbours, a retired poultry veterinarian named Wu Duorong, has assumed the role of nuclear educator.
“Everyone knows there will be a nuclear power plant, but they don’t know how dangerous it will be,” he says as he digs through a pile of newspapers, looking for a specific headline. “But I read the newspapers every day, so I know and I tell them. You shouldn’t build these things near where people live.”
Nuclear nimbyism in China
8:09 PM With a nuclear power station just one kilometer away on the opposite bank of the Yangtze river, villagers from the rural hamlet of Shengli have protested to their provincial government and their efforts have led to a formal request to Beijing to suspend construction. Leslie Hook reports from Anhui province. (1m 57sec Video)
http://video.ft.com/v/1479918280001
By Leslie Hook in Wangjiang, Anhui province
2/28/2012 FT
For Wang Nianyu, a cotton farmer in Anhui province, China’s nuclear debate is right on his doorstep. From his patio he points across the Yangtze River to the Pengze nuclear power station, which has become a lightning rod for protest after the meltdown at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi plant last year.
“We only knew about the plant when we read about it in the newspapers,” says Mr Wang, 72, the former village head of this tiny hamlet. “Nuclear plants shouldn’t be this close to people.”
Organised public protest in China is rare, but growing, and Mr Wang is part of a groundswell of criticism of the Pengze plant.
China, which is the world’s biggest energy consumer, gets just 2 per cent of its power from its 15 nuclear reactors, according to the latest data. But this is expected to more than double in the next decade as it moves away from fossil fuels. Beijing is embarking on the world’s most dramatic nuclear expansion programme with 26 reactors under construction, and a further 51 planned and 120 proposed.
http://easss.com/nuclear
After the Fukushima accident, Beijing suspended approvals for new nuclear plants, announced a sweeping safety review, and started drafting new nuclear safety legislation.
While less visible, the response from Chinese living rooms as people watched images of the disaster unfold was just as important. Fears of radioactive fallout from Japan caused panicked runs on iodine used to treat people exposed to radiation and iodised salt used in cooking.
Nearly a year later, opposition to the Pengze plant has escalated to the point that the eastern province of Anhui province has issued a formal appeal to Beijing to halt construction on the plant, which is in neighbouring Jiangxi province but close to population centres in Anhui.
Other reactors under construction have also seen more vocal opposition.
Although the protests do not appear co-ordinated and no nationwide anti-nuclear lobby group exists, any public disturbance will raise anxiety in Beijing where leaders are increasingly worried about unrest.
He Zuoxiu, a prominent retired physicist who helped develop China’s nuclear programme in the 1960s, has been lobbying hard against the Pengze plant, and other proposed inland reactors, saying it shows how badly China’s nuclear power plans have over-reached.
“China has to stop its ‘Great Leap Forward’ approach to nuclear power,” says Mr He, referring to the disastrous industrialisation programme under Mao Zedong that left millions dead from famine. “China has to have nuclear energy – we need the power – but we need to slow down and take a more measured approach, and really learn the lessons of Fukushima.”
Officials say China’s commitment to nuclear power is unaltered, and the government argues that nuclear power will be essential as the country shifts away from coal and fossil fuels.
But almost a year on from Fukushima the new nuclear laws have yet to be published, leaving a big question mark for the global nuclear industry, which had been counting on China to drive demand for new reactors.
Some experts say the delay may be because no official wants to approve new nuclear plants before the Communist party leadership transition later this year. But even when the new laws are unveiled and China’s nuclear programme resumes in full, the shift in public attitudes could make it more difficult for reactors to gain Beijing’s approval in future.
The Pengze protests began when four retired bureaucrats from Wangjiang, a bustling city of 620,000 in Anhui, wrote a protest letter last June, saying the plant was too close to their town.
Although their petition was initially ignored by the Anhui government, which is planning several reactors itself, it was circulated privately and gradually gained a following among provincial and central leaders. Last last year, the town of Wangjiang submitted a formal petition to the Anhui government, which passed it up to the National Energy Administration in Beijing. Earlier this month, Anhui’s provincial congress also debated a motion expressing opposition to the Pengze plant.
The nuclear power station is one of three inland facilities that are about to begin construction. Mr He and other scientists have raised concerns over water supply and population density for China’s inland reactors. He says that the huge population living downstream along the Yangtze River would be threatened if there was a nuclear accident.
The Pengze nuclear plant is owned by four Chinese power and infrastructure companies, China Power Investment, Jiangxi Ganneng, Jiangxi Ganyu Expressway and Shenzhen Nanshan Power. The companies did not respond to requests for comment.
Whether or not the project goes ahead, it has already had a big impact on public perceptions of nuclear power in the surrounding areas. In the riverside hamlet of Shengli, the plant has become a daily topic of conversation. Since few villagers can read, one of Mr Wang’s neighbours, a retired poultry veterinarian named Wu Duorong, has assumed the role of nuclear educator.
“Everyone knows there will be a nuclear power plant, but they don’t know how dangerous it will be,” he says as he digs through a pile of newspapers, looking for a specific headline. “But I read the newspapers every day, so I know and I tell them. You shouldn’t build these things near where people live.”
Nuclear nimbyism in China
8:09 PM With a nuclear power station just one kilometer away on the opposite bank of the Yangtze river, villagers from the rural hamlet of Shengli have protested to their provincial government and their efforts have led to a formal request to Beijing to suspend construction. Leslie Hook reports from Anhui province. (1m 57sec Video)
http://video.ft.com/v/1479918280001
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