China Has a Dearth of Nuclear Engineers for Its Program, China Scholar Says

Two academics, one American and one Chinese, had spent a part of the summer studying the Chinese nuclear energy program, holding discussions with numerous nuclear engineers involved in the program. They presented some of the results of their discussion at a forum today at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).

Bo Kong, a Chinese scholar, now with a fellowship at SAIS, indicated that the actual program of construction had fast outpaced the original planning by the government. "In order to meet their assumed target of reducing carbon emissions by 40-45% by the year 2020, China will have to rapidly expand their nuclear facilities," Kong said. China now has 11 reactors, and there are 20 under construction. The latest target is to build 60-75 nuclear plants by 2020. Although the Chinese initially wanted to settle on one standardized version of power plant, they have pretty much played the entire field, picking and choosing from among a variety of reactors, utilizing Russian as well as French technologies, and have most recently begun, perhaps for political more than technical reasons, to rely on the latest 3rd-generation Westinghouse AP-1000 reactors. Since China is one of the first countries to build the AP-1000, Kong said, it will become a leader in that technology. The first AP-1000 is to come on line in 2013, Kong said. There is also a small, 200MW pebble-bed reactor at Tsinghua University, which is the first such reactor that has been proven completely safe, Bo Kong said.

The biggest bottleneck China, he continued, is the dearth of Chinese nuclear engineers and technicians. To meet today's intended target (which will undoubtedly increase), they will need 13,000 nuclear engineers. That means they will have to graduate 1,000 nuclear professionals each year, and have 4,000 people studying nuclear engineering at the universities. China will also become a major exporter of nuclear technology, and has already assisted Pakistan with its program, as well as Vietnam. There are also plans to help Jordan in its recent interest in developing nuclear energy.