China Faces Obstacles In Nuclear Energy

China has great potential and incentive to speed up the development of nuclear energy, as its fast-growing economy badly needs more fuel. Until now, the country has relied on coal for 70% to 80% of its energy needs, thanks to an abundance of the resource. It has also been importing more oil each year to meet growing domestic consumption.

However, with rising fuel prices and fuel-related environmental problems, Beijing needs to diversify its energy sources. Nuclear energy is an attractive option because it is cleaner and more efficient than traditional fuels.
However, China’s nuclear program faces hurdles:

–Uranium shortage. China is short of uranium, with known reserves of only 70,000 metric tons (or tonnes), or about 1% of the world total. It now produces about 840 tonnes and imports 700 to 800 tonnes per year from Kazakhstan, Russia and Namibia to meet domestic needs. By 2010, it will need nearly 4,000 tonnes. It has been actively exploring domestic mines in Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, Liaoning and Guangxi, but its ores are of low grade and its production inefficient, and so it looks abroad.

Forbes