A Long Way Off

Abstract

China has rapidly developed its nuclear power sector since the start of the 21^st century. As most nuclear power plants (NPPs) only recently were put into operation, the majority of spent fuel is still stored at the reactor sites although some is transported to offsite interim storage facilities. China has expressed interest in building a geological deep repository for disposal of high level waste (HLW) from its nuclear facilities. Screening of potential sites started during the mid 1980s. R&D proceeded over the years, but received only limited funds, as attention was more focussed on China’s ambitions to realise a closed nuclear fuel cycle strategy with reprocessing. So far, a site for a deep geological HLW repository in Northwest China is not confirmed and the planned construction of an underground research laboratory (URL) and a final repository have been delayed. The existing legislation regarding the treatment of nuclear waste remains fragmented and unsystematic, as China lacks a comprehensive National Atomic Law that regulates the obligation for NPP operators to treat and dispose nuclear waste. The overland transportation of spent fuel via public highways, a distance of over 4,000 km from the NPPs in the eastern provinces to the designated interim storage facilities and later final repository site, seems to be both the bottleneck and the Achilles heel of the nuclear waste strategy. Although nuclear safety issues have been discussed to some extent by the Chinese public in the aftermath of the Fukushima accident and in recent years protests against NPPs and related industries have been reported, the issue of nuclear waste has not yet been addressed in the public debate. This is expected to change as nuclear waste transports to the treatment facilities increase in the coming years.