Foreign uranium to feed 60 pct of China nuclear sector-research
Tue Dec 21, 2010 8:28am GMT
BEIJING Dec 21 (Reuters) - China will need to source more than 60 percent of the uranium needed for its nuclear power plants from overseas by 2020, even if the country moves forward with a modest nuclear expansion plan, Chinese researchers said.This suggests that it could take a shorter time for the world's top energy consumer to depend on international markets for half of its uranium consumption than it did for half of its crude oil use.
China, the world's No.4 crude oil producer, became a net crude oil importer in 1993 and has relied on foreign purchases for more than half of consumption since 2008, as limited domestic production gains failed to keep pace with demand.
China has set a target of 40 gigawatts (GW) of installed nuclear generating capacity by 2020, but the government indicated it could double the goal to about 80 GW as faster expansion was one of the more feasible solutions for achieving emissions reduction goals.
Assuming 40 GW of nuclear generating capacity in 2020, domestic demand for natural uranium will increase to 6,000 to 7,200 tonnes, according to a research paper published in the December issue of Electric Power, a magazine controlled by State Grid Corp of China.
China will produce 2,400 tonnes of natural uranium by that time, if all planned uranium mines are put into operation and are operating at full capacity.
China used 1,300-1,600 tonnes of natural uranium based on nuclear capacity in 2009, according to the paper written by Hou Jianchao and two other researchers at two universities.
The country has 171,400 tonnes of proven uranium resources spread mainly in eight provinces -- Jiangxi, Guangdong, Hunan, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, Liaoning and Yunnan, the paper said.
China has seven uranium mines under production, with a total natural uranium production capacity of 1,350 tonnes.
The paper said China needed to speed up mine investments and adopt advanced technologies to improve domestic production capacity, as existing proven uranium resources were only sufficient for a 40-GW nuclear industry to run about 25 years, and a high elevel of imports would be risky.
Chinese companies should cooperate with foreign companies in exploring and developing overseas mines and establish a uranium reserve system, it said.
Proactively developing fourth-generation nuclear power technology such as fast neutron reactors would better utilise uranium fuels than existing pressurised water reactors, the paper added.
China is the world's largest nuclear power construction site and a testing ground for technologies from countries including France, Canada, Russia and United States.
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