this is hot of the press from WNN, that's World Nuclear News....
Again, big news.
Here is a portion of that article
Hong Kong to replace coal with nuclear 15 September 2010 A consultation put to the people of Hong Kong suggests an increase in nuclear capacity to supply half of electricity as a major plank of its climate change strategy.
The cover of the consultation document The Special Administrative Region's government has explained its proposed approach to mitigation in a consultation document out for public comment until the end of the year. It covers five sectors: energy efficiency, road transport, road fuels, turning waste to energy and "revamping the fuel mix for electricity generation."
"Our objective is to reduce the proportion of coal in the overall fuel mix," said the document. The fossil fuel currently "dominates" city power supplies with 54% of generation, while 23% comes from natural gas.
With renewables neglibigle to date, the remaining 23% comes from CLP Power Hong Kong Limited's 25% stake in two 984 MWe reactors at Daya Bay in Guangdong Province. Some 70% of the power plant's output is routed to Hong Kong.
New coal power plants have not been allowed since 1997 and the latest units, from the 1980s, will retire in the period 2020-30. To handle the drop in coal's contribution below 10% by 2020, the government wants to increase natural gas generation to meet 40% of supply and to boost nuclear to 50%. Renewables are expected to grow to 3%, and remaining coal units would be kept on low utilization rates as reserve.
Boosting nuclear power is seen as the best way of replacing coal and thereby improving air quality - 1994 saw annual greenhouse gas emissions cut by about 7 million tonnes as imports began from Daya Bay. The other option, natural gas, would enable the city to cut greenhouse gases by about 50% compared to the coal generation replaced.
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