Nuclear power gets put on hold

Japan’s nuclear crisis reverberated in atomic power-friendly countries today, with China delaying approval of new nuclear plants and French MPs questioning energy executives about the safety of their reactors.

Some governments have put their nuclear future on hold, at least for now, as concerns grow even among pro-nuclear governments about reactor safety around the world.

China said the government will suspend approvals for nuclear power stations to allow for a revision in safety standards.

The State Council has ordered the relevant departments to conduct safety checks at existing plants and at those that are under construction.

The suspension and safety checks will allow China’s leaders to allay any concerns among the public about the safety of nuclear power without derailing plans to double nuclear energy’s share of national power generation to high single digits by 2020.

A Chinese official said earlier this week that Japan’s problems would not deter China from expanding nuclear power generation.

China has 13 nuclear power plants in use now and ambitiously plans to add potentially hundreds more. Beijing has been focusing on clean energy generation, including solar, hydropower, wind and nuclear, as one way to reduce the country’s reliance on coal, a major pollutant.

In France, the heads of both houses of parliament ordered a legislative investigation into “the future of the French nuclear industry.”

An emergency meeting in the lower house of parliament was called for the chiefs of nuclear reactor builder Areva and Electricite de France, the world’s biggest operator of nuclear plants.

France was among the few countries to continue developing nuclear power after Chernobyl. It is more dependent on nuclear energy than any other country and its companies market nuclear technology around the world, including to China, Japan and the United States.