Radiation fears in Hong Kong from China's unproven and possibly faulty nuclear reactors nearby
Unproven and possibly faulty nuclear reactors are being built on Hong Kong's doorstep and throughout China, a country not known for its transparency or industrial safety, writes Stuart Heaver
Fifty years ago, when China first revealed its nuclear power ambitions, most in the West dismissed them as Maoist propaganda, but there is nothing imaginary about the nation's current boom in nuclear energy - and not everyone is happy about it.
Scientists and conservationists fear the ever-increasing commercial and environmental pressure to expand the nuclear power sector means not enough attention is being paid to safety. Within a couple of decades, Hong Kong could be in close proximity to as many as 39 reactors, spread across Guangdong province. Two of them are nearing completion just 140km west of Hong Kong, in Taishan, in what has been labelled by green groups as the "most dangerous nuclear power plant in the world".
We are very worried about Taishan and the design flaws in the reactor vessel and we would like to know what [China General Nuclear Power Group] are doing
"China is developing its nuclear capability too fast; they just don't have enough trained staff or adequate independent safety infrastructure," says civil engineer Albert Lai Kwong-tak, convenor of Hong Kong think tank the Professional Commons and a long-standing opponent of nuclear energy. Yet, despite the reservations of campaigners, China is not only the world's biggest market for nuclear technology but, according to the World Nuclear Association (WNA), it is set to "go global".
"The only country that is building plants to a significant degree is China," says nuclear industry analyst Mycle Schneider, from his Beijing hotel room. And the driving force behind the nuclear push is no mystery. The nation is trying to meet an increasing demand for electricity while curbing its emissions of carbon dioxide. According to the United States-based Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), from 1992 to 2012, electricity consumption grew from 666 billion kilowatt-hours to 4,468 billion kilowatt-hours - an average annual growth rate of about 10 per cent - and, currently, non-fossil fuels account for only about 12 per cent of supply in China.