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Author: Source: Xinhua News Agency Published time: October 25, 2012
At the State Council executive meeting held by Premier Wen Jiabao on October 24, the 12th Fiver-Year Plan for Energy Plan was discussed and passed. Meanwhile, the Nuclear Power Safety Plan (2011 – 2020) and the Nuclear Power Intermediate and Long-Term Development Plan (2011) were also discussed and passed.
As pointed out in the 12th Fiver-Year Plan for Energy Plan passed at the meeting, it is necessary to expedite the reform in the methods for energy production and utility, strengthen energy efficiency-prioritizing strategy, fully improve energy development and conversion and efficiency, reasonably control the gross energy consumption, and build a modern industry system for energy that is safe, stable, cost-efficient, and clean. Work priorities include: 1) To enhance the exploration and development of domestic energy resources, safely and efficiently develop coal and regular petroleum and gas resources, and strengthen the exploration and development of shale gas and coalbed gas, and actively develop hydropower and wind power and other renewable energy in an orderly manner. 2) To promote efficient and clean conversion of energy. Efforts will be made to develop coal power in an efficient and clean way, promote coal washing and dressing and deep processing, develop oil refinery industries in a lean manner, and develop natural gas power generation in an orderly manner. 3) To promote the reform in power supply methods. Efforts will be intensified to develop distributed energy, promote smart grid building, and strengthen the construction of power supply infrastructure for EVs. 4) To speed up the construction of energy storage and transportation infrastructure and improve the storage capability for emergency response. 5) To implement livelihood energy projects and promote the equivalence of public services between urban and rural areas. 6) To reasonably control the gross energy consumption, comprehensively promote energy efficiency, and strengthen energy consumption management. 7) To promote reforms in such fields as electric power, coal, petroleum and natural gas, sort out the pricing mechanism for energy, and encourage private investments in the energy realm. It is necessary to promote technological advancement and improve the level of high-tech equipment, while efforts will be made to deepen international cooperation and guarantee national energy security.
The Nuclear Power Safety Plan (2011 – 2020) and the Nuclear Power Intermediate and Long-Term Development Plan (2011) were also discussed and passed at the meeting. As mentioned at the meeting, the State Council has, since March last year, discussed these two plans on the basis of conducting a comprehensive safety inspection of nuclear power generator units operating or being built, showing its seriousness and caution about the safe development of nuclear power.
At the meeting, strategies for current and future nuclear power development were laid down: 1) To safely resume normal development. The pace of construction will be reasonably controlled to ensure steady and orderly development. 2) To deploy projects scientifically. After thorough discussions, only a few nuclear power project sites were selected in the coastal areas instead of the inland areas. 3) To raise the market access threshold. New nuclear power projects will be implemented by the highest world standards; new nuclear power generator units shall comply with the third-generation safety standards.
As emphasized at the meeting, safety is the lifeline for nuclear power. In nuclear power development, it is necessary to ensure that it meets the overall requirements for environmental safety, public health, and social harmony and implement the “Safety First” policy in the whole process of nuclear power planning, construction, operations, and facility decommissioning and all relevant industries. Advanced and mature technology will be used to carry out safety upgrade of nuclear power generator units in service or being built and continuously improve the safety performance of the existing nuclear power generator units in China. It is necessary to intensify efforts in the R&D of nuclear power safety technology and equipment, speed up the development of a legal and regulatory framework for nuclear power safety, and improve the capability of nuclear accident management and emergency response. It is imperative to strengthen social supervision and supervision through public opinions while actively carrying out international cooperation.
