The Politics of Nuclear Energy in China

About this book

China is going nuclear. It is planning to increase its nuclear generation capacity by building two or three nuclear power plants every year for the next ten years, as one step towards meeting its rapidly rising energy demand. Will China be able to expand its nuclear capacity sufficiently and quickly enough to beat the urgent twin challenges it faces – energy security and climate change? If history is the judge, perhaps not.

The Politics of Nuclear Energy in China seeks to provide an answer to this question by examining the forces in China that have shaped its nuclear energy development. It highlights the economic, technical, environmental and, most importantly, political challenges facing nuclear energy development in China.

Contents

- Introduction
- From Bomb to Power
- Expanding the Nuclear Energy Program
- Who Decides? The Politics of Nuclear Energy
- Who Pays? The Economics of Nuclear Energy
- Technology Adoption or Technology Innovation
- Fuelling the Future: the Nuclear Fuel Cycle
- Who Cares? The Public and the Environment
- Is Nuclear the Future?

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Biography

Xu Yi-Chong Research Professor of Politics and Public Policy at Griffith University, Australia. Xu is the author of Powering China: Reforming the electric power industry in China (2002); Electricity Reform in China, India and Russia: The World Bank Template and the Politics of Power (2004) and The Politics of Nuclear Energy in China (2010). With Patrick Weller she co-authored The Governance of World Trade: International Civil Servants and the GATT/WTO and Inside the World Bank (2009). Xu also co-edited The Politics of Sovereign Wealth Funds (2010, with Gawdat Bahgat).