Nuclear Power is Set for a Revival in China

Uranium (Nuclear Minerals) / Nuclear Power - Economics, Design, & Industry

Date posted: 04/12/15

Aficionados of fission have had to wait nearly two decades for another public flotation of a firm operating nuclear power plants. The last one, that of British Energy, was back in 1996, and that company was taken over years ago. Now investors have the chance to get in on the action in the hottest place in the global nuclear business - China. China General Nuclear Power, a state-owned enterprise, that is China largest nuclear firm, is planning to float shares on the Hong Kong stock exchange on December 10th, 2014. Market rumors suggest it will raise well over 3 billion dollars. Dealogic, a research firm, reckons this is likely to be the biggest listing in Hong Kong as well as the largest utility IPO globally so far this year. Some see in the flotation a harbinger of a continuing nuclear renaissance. If true, this would bring cheer to the fledgling industry. The shale-gas revolution has undercut the economics of building new nuclear reactors in North America. And since the deadly tsunami and nuclear fiasco at the Fukushima site in Japan nearly four years ago, confidence in this technology has waned in many places. Germany, for example, is getting out of nuclear power to depend on Russian natural gas, brown coal, and renewables but this step has been predicted to be a potentially disastrous and irresponsible step by the current German government. China put a moratorium on new plants after that accident too, but the boosters have now prevailed over the doubters. The State Council wants a big expansion of nuclear power along the coast to triple capacity by 2020. This plan is not as ambitious as before Fukushima, but Moody, a credit-ratings agency, nevertheless calls it an aggressive nuclear expansion. Some analysts look beyond 2020 and predict an even bigger wave of nuclear power plants will be built in inland provinces, giving a boost to this type of energy worldwide.