The Future of Nuclear Energy in China
Project Description
Nuclear energy is at the core of China’s plan to transition to a low-carbon energy system by 2060. Nuclear power is expected to contribute about 10% of power generation in the country by 2035 and 18% in 2060, with a total generation capacity of 400 gigawatts (GWe) by 2060.
As of 2023, however, the installed nuclear power capacity in China was only 57 GWe which only accounted for 2.2% of total electric installed capacity. To achieve its ambitious goal, the country would need to deploy 10 new nuclear reactors per year until 2060. Such a growth rate for nuclear power over 35 years has never been seen in other regions of the world. Besides, China aims to make its nuclear supply chain self-sufficient and reduce to a minimum import of foreign nuclear technology and equipment.
The goal of this project is to explore the main challenges that nuclear energy in China will face in the next decades and probe policy solutions that could address these issues. To this end, the following aspects of nuclear energy in China can be explored by the students (they can choose one or several of these aspects):
- Economic competitiveness of nuclear energy compared to other sources of energy in China, especially renewable energy
- Public attitude toward nuclear power in China and public oppositions to specific nuclear projects
- Limited geographical space to construct future nuclear power plants because of China’s policy to only permit construction on the coastline
- Accumulation of nuclear spent fuel and limited storage capacity for it
- Level of dependence of China’s nuclear industry supply chain to foreign import (fuel, equipment, technology, software)
At the end of this project, students would be required to produce a report of their findings which could be turned into a journal publication depending on the quality of the findings.
As of 2023, however, the installed nuclear power capacity in China was only 57 GWe which only accounted for 2.2% of total electric installed capacity. To achieve its ambitious goal, the country would need to deploy 10 new nuclear reactors per year until 2060. Such a growth rate for nuclear power over 35 years has never been seen in other regions of the world. Besides, China aims to make its nuclear supply chain self-sufficient and reduce to a minimum import of foreign nuclear technology and equipment.
The goal of this project is to explore the main challenges that nuclear energy in China will face in the next decades and probe policy solutions that could address these issues. To this end, the following aspects of nuclear energy in China can be explored by the students (they can choose one or several of these aspects):
- Economic competitiveness of nuclear energy compared to other sources of energy in China, especially renewable energy
- Public attitude toward nuclear power in China and public oppositions to specific nuclear projects
- Limited geographical space to construct future nuclear power plants because of China’s policy to only permit construction on the coastline
- Accumulation of nuclear spent fuel and limited storage capacity for it
- Level of dependence of China’s nuclear industry supply chain to foreign import (fuel, equipment, technology, software)
At the end of this project, students would be required to produce a report of their findings which could be turned into a journal publication depending on the quality of the findings.
Supervisor
DE TROULLIOUD DE LANVERSIN, Julien
Quota
3
Course type
UROP1100
Applicant's Roles
The role of applicants for this project will be the following:
- Getting familiar with China's nuclear power industry and China's government plan for nuclear energy
- Gathering and exploiting government reports, official data, and scientific publications to quantify and qualify the obstacles to nuclear energy growth in China
- Conducting a few interviews with actors in the nuclear energy industry in China
- Identifying a few policy solutions that China could adopt to facilitate the growth of nuclear energy in the country
- Summarizing their findings in a report
- Depending on the quality of the work, applicants could opt to publish a piece in a local/national newspaper such as the South China Morning Post or the China Daily
The supervisor is an expert in nuclear energy and will be there to help the students all along the project
- Getting familiar with China's nuclear power industry and China's government plan for nuclear energy
- Gathering and exploiting government reports, official data, and scientific publications to quantify and qualify the obstacles to nuclear energy growth in China
- Conducting a few interviews with actors in the nuclear energy industry in China
- Identifying a few policy solutions that China could adopt to facilitate the growth of nuclear energy in the country
- Summarizing their findings in a report
- Depending on the quality of the work, applicants could opt to publish a piece in a local/national newspaper such as the South China Morning Post or the China Daily
The supervisor is an expert in nuclear energy and will be there to help the students all along the project
Applicant's Learning Objectives
Through this project, applicants will learn the following skills:
- How to read and interpret official announcements and reports
- How to extract industrial trends from quantitative data sets
- How to connect technological issues with national policy decisions
- How to craft policy answers to pressing technological issues
- How to present research findings in a report
- How to present research findings to a larger audience (in the case of a publication in a newspaper)
- How to read and interpret official announcements and reports
- How to extract industrial trends from quantitative data sets
- How to connect technological issues with national policy decisions
- How to craft policy answers to pressing technological issues
- How to present research findings in a report
- How to present research findings to a larger audience (in the case of a publication in a newspaper)
Complexity of the project
Moderate