Technicians monitor the air for radiation during a nuclear accident drill in Zhuhai, Guangdong Province following the Fukushima disaster in Japan last March. Photo: CFP
An inter-provincial squabble over a nuclear power plant being built near the southern bank of the Yangtze River, and not far from the shores of Taibo Lake in Jiangxi Province, has raised questions about China's ambitious expansion of its nuclear power program.
While Anhui Province appears to be the environmentally progressive opponent of the Jiangxi nuclear plant, it too has plans to build four of its own nuclear power plants.
The debate, which has included some mudslinging by both provinces, has experts outside the region suggesting neither province should build nuclear reactors.
Just two years ago China announced an ambitious plan to up the percentage of electricity supplied by nuclear power to 5 percent of total power by 2020. This would see the country's nuclear generating capacity increase more than seven times to over 80 gigawatts.
The plant in the center of the brewing controversy is located in Pengze county in Jiangxi. Across the river the government of Wangjiang county in Anhui wants the project shelved, saying they don't want the nuke plant so close to their backyard.
A report submitted by Wangjiang officials accuses its neighbor of lying about the population density in the area. They claim more than 150,000 people from Wangjiang alone live within a 10-kilometer radius of the plant. State regulations require that no more than 100,000 people should be living within a 10-kilometer radius of a planned nuclear power plant.
The Wangjiang report also claims the proposed plant is in or near an earthquake zone. They point to a 2011 quake that shook the city of Jiujiang about 80 kilometers away which measured 4.6 on the Richter scale, and another in 2005 that measured 5.7.
The planned nuclear power plant is expected to work wonders for Jiangxi's economy. The six reactors will generate more electricity than is currently produced in the entire province. It will have an installed capacity of 8 gigawatts allowing it to generate 56 billion kwh of electricity each year. The first reactor is expected to be operational by 2015, official records show.
At a total cost of 100 billion yuan ($15.87 billion), even the construction of the plant will give the local economy an enormous kick. Along with the huge potential for economic spinoffs the county government expects to rake in 50 million yuan in taxes during construction and 3 billion yuan a year in tax revenue when the project is completed. Currently Pengze county collects barely one-sixth of the projected tax revenues, according to a China Business Journal report in December.
Point counterpoint
While Pengze county officials might be forgiven for seeing its nuclear power plant as a cash cow, across the river Wangjiang country officials worry their agricultural-based economy is being threatened.
"We worry about two things: So many people are living close by and the potential for earthquakes. What if something happens? What are they going to do about it?" asked Yu Zehong, director of the development and reform commission for Wangjiang county.
Hu Bin, director of the nuclear project office in Pengze, said he has no idea what's caused the sudden objections from the neighbors a few kilometers downstream. He told the Oriental Morning Post that Jiangxi officials have strictly followed regulations and communicated with the local governments in Anhui.
Yu counters Hu's assertions, saying Anhui has never been fully consulted and was only informed the project was going ahead last year.
Yet Pengze authorities say they polled 500 neighboring residents in Wangjiang about their views of the plant and 96 percent of respondents approved of the project. To this Wangjiang officials say the questionnaire was skewed to promote a positive response and it failed to inform people of the potential dangers of nuclear power.
Some residents in Wangjiang contacted by the Global Times said they haven't heard about the project. One woman in Mopan village, less than five kilometers from the proposed plant, said she had no idea what a nuclear power plant actually does, nor had she heard of the accident in Japan last year. Some residents in Madang township near where the plant will be built said they knew about the big project but hadn't been told of any potential dangers.
While the tit-for-tat war of words between the counties in the two provinces isn't likely to abate soon, experts on the national stage are firing up a larger debate about China's nuclear power strategy.
He Zuoxiu, a leading theoretical physicist, isn't only concerned about one nuclear plant near the banks of the Yangtze.
"China shouldn't build any nuclear power plant in the inland regions," said He, 85, who worked on China's first nuclear bomb.
"People have failed to consider the potential for accidents like an earthquake or terrorist attacks, or asteroid hit," said He.