 Choosing a standard reactor: International competition and domestic politics in Chinese nuclear policyM.V. Ramana and Eri Saikawa Energy, 2011, vol. 36, issue 12, 6779-6789 Abstract: China has ambitious plans to expand its nuclear power capacity. One of the policy goals that high-level policymakers have desired is to base the nuclear program on a standardized reactor design. However, this has not materialized so far. By examining its nuclear reactor choices for individual projects, we argue that China’s policymaking process has been greatly influenced by international competition and domestic politics. Multiple international nuclear vendors are intent upon maintaining their respective niches in the expanding Chinese reactor market, and they have used various forms of economic and political pressure to achieve their objectives. On the other hand, China’s policymaking process is fragmented and the shifting power balances among powerful domestic actors do not allow a fixed path to be followed. Further, because of the high costs and potential profits involved, nuclear reactor choices in China have been driven not just by technical considerations but also by foreign and trade policy objectives. All of these make it unlikely that China will standardize the reactor type it constructs in the near future. Keywords: China; Nuclear power; Energy policymaking; Nuclear policy (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:36:y:2011:i:12:p:6779-6789 DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2011.10.022 Access Statistics for this article Energy is currently edited by Henrik Lund and Mark J. Kaiser More articles in Energy from Elsevier |
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