The government's decision Wednesday that nuclear power is safe
for China takes the country in the opposite direction from some
developed nations such as Germany, which decided in the wake of
the Fukushima disaster to speed its complete phase-out of
nuclear power. Japan is planning to phase it out by 2040. China
is the world's biggest energy consumer, and building new
reactors is a key part of Beijing's plans to curb demand for
fossil fuels. The communist government is aggressively promoting
alternatives to coal and oil in order to reduce pollution and
curb its reliance on imported petroleum, which it sees as a
national security risk. Still, coal is forecast to remain the
country's main energy source for decades. The government said
Wednesday it hopes to generate 30 percent of China's power from
solar, wind and other renewable sources, as well as from nuclear
energy, by the end of 2015. That's up from an earlier target of
15 percent from renewables plus 5 percent from nuclear by 2020.
The Cabinet on Wednesday