The sources of divergent practices in China's nuclear power sector

Cheryl S.F. Chi and Ling Chen

Energy Policy, 2012, vol. 48, issue C, 348-357

Abstract: Unlike markets that were early developers of reactors, which are dominated by single technologies, China's nuclear power sector adopts and imports multiple technologies. Even after the Chinese government introduced a policy to develop a standardized, unified, and technologically advanced nuclear power sector in the early 2000s, different technologies continue to be imported. This study uses an institutional lens to explore the decoupling of policy intentions and implementation. The three phases of nuclear technology imports that occurred between the 1980s and 2010 are examined and compared. Data are collected from multiple sources, including the diary of a major decision-maker, news articles, project websites, a regulation database, domestic journal articles, and interviews with industry experts. Using interactive content analysis, this study identifies the multiple policy principles and goals of different domains that led to different import arrangements and interpretations of the available foreign technology. New arrangements do not replace but overlap the existing ones that are perpetuated by the actors who benefit from them. The results show that the multiplicity of China's nuclear power sector, coupled with the government's late attempts at standardization, contributes to diversified policy implementation. They provide important policy implications for the sustainable development of the sector.

Keywords: Nuclear power; Technological imports; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030142151200448X
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:enepol:v:48:y:2012:i:c:p:348-357

DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2012.05.036

Access Statistics for this article

Energy Policy is currently edited by N. France

More articles in Energy Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().