China's Nuclear Energy BOOM

The Chinese are opening a “special” nuclear plant in 2017. Like most grandiose Chinese productions, this nuclear plant is being touted as “meltdown-free”. I’m sure it will be a model of manufacturing genius as are all “Made in China” products. Yes, these new nuclear plants will be made with ‘homemade” nuclear technology. To be fair, when referencing China, if I say homemade I mean stolen from other countries and passed off as Chinese. Let’s discuss how frightening the prospect of homemade Chinese nuclear plants will be.

China is concerned about their pollution, which on its own is a disaster. The lack of experienced government planners; the enforcement of cheap labour and annexing farmland to attain this cheap labour are part in parcel or at the very least, the middle core of why China has a pollution problem. At the risk of going temporarily off topic, government shrews and foreigners bent on amassing great fortunes on the backs of their own countrymen are also responsible.

During the heyday of economic growth, coal plants were opening each and every week in order to keep pace with the incredible demand for Chinese made goods. When smog days (alerts to stay home) in Beijing and Shanghai became more prevalent, China’s governing officials (CCP) had no choice but to find alternative solutions to coal. So in their infinite wisdom, the ruler’s resolution for the dirty air problem that they created is to convert coal plants to the most dangerous energy source imaginable: Nuclear energy. But (and I know I shouldn’t be starting a sentence with but…but) don’t worry, the country that has been stealing western technology for decades, will be building never-before-tested, melt-proof nuclear reactors.

Nothing to see here folks; move along.

By the end of 2018, China expects to have close to sixty working nuclear power plants and one-hundred ten should be completed by 2030. At the moment, many of these new power plant projects are on earthquake prone inland regions, like Fukushima but times twenty. Just thought I’d throw that little tidbit in before you began leaning towards the positive. To add, and to prove that this article is not China bashing, a prominent Chinese physicist - He Zuoxiu - calls the nuclear project insane as China does not have sufficient experience to cope with such an aggressive plan.

So does He Zuoxiu have a point? Let’s look at China’s track record over the last ten to fifteen years.

To name a few cutting cost mistakes, this is the country that gave us lead in toys, melamine in pet food and sulfurous drywall. Thousands of Chinese children were sickened by melamine in dairy products. European Union safety watchdogs reported that of the 2435 dangerous product notifications released in 2014, sixty-four percent of those products came from China. Fish imported from China is known to be toxic causing foreign distributors to leave the origin of the fish off labeling. And of course, there is the classic soy sauce made out of human hair and later exported to the west. I love that one, it’s truly priceless.

For those of you that are new to this, eighty percent of China’s groundwater is polluted and fifty percent is toxic. Polluted means you shouldn’t drink or bathe in it. Toxic means, I dare you to drink it…I double dare you. It means you can get sick and die or grow a third eye. But what the hell, soak your veggies in it, freeze it and sell it to the Americans. I mean, how bad can food fed with illegal chemicals and toxic water actually be? Seriously, eating anything from China is a problem waiting to happen. Cat meat, gutter oil, cardboard dumplings and fake beef…the list of food scams goes on and on. Do you see the point? There is insufficient means to regulate the different manufacturing industries. Too many hands are being greased. Graft is so widespread that any means to cut costs means more money for the grafters. You can’t cut costs at a nuclear plant. The Soviet Union cut corners at Chernobyl. Picture getting clearer?

Let’s move away from food and miscellaneous products and look at other cost cutting and/or knowledge lacking disasters.

Dozens of Industrial accidents have kept China on the front page over the last two years. Keep in mind that these are the accidents that we – westerners – hear about. The most horrific accident occurred in Tianjin, when an explosion killed 173 and wounded another 800. Dangerous working conditions, poor maintenance and faulty parts are the most common culprits blamed for these needless deaths. The faulty parts, by the way, are made in China. The country’s safety record is atrocious and has not shown any progress whatsoever in the last decade. If anything, it’s worse. How can such a record be entrusted with the building of so many nuclear plants? Given the combination of polluted air and water with spectacular industrial accidents, it’s hard to envision a country less qualified to embark on such an elaborate project. It is the height of foolishness.

There is an interesting theoretical calculation on when a nuclear accident will occur and it’s based on the total number of active reactors versus the number of accidents. The lifetime of nuclear reactors is calculated in "reactor-years". One reactor year means one reactor operating for one year. The world's 443 nuclear power plants have been running for a total of 14,767 reactor-years, during which time there have been 23 accidents involving a reactor core melting. That’s one major accident every 642 reactor years, which if you do the math, is kind of terrifying. Given the lack of water to power all these new reactors and the lack of technical expertise, China is expected - based on theoretical calculations – to have a serious nuclear accident between the years 2020 and 2030.

News came out recently that China is in the process of building a fleet of offshore floating nuclear plants. In simple terms these are nuclear plants on boats.

Yah, nothing could go wrong there.

There are those who will argue that this solution is perfect for the energy concerns of the South China Sea fabricated islands. (What is going on there that would need such incredible energy requirements? Solar is not enough?) Of course, when military is involved, environmentalism gets tossed out the door. The building of this island has already decimated the marine ecology around the reefs that have been dredged and pumped. In the very near future when these floating reactors are near shore, they will vacuum and spew heated water into the same space thus further killing the marine ecosystems.

Yep…this will end well.

There is hope though. If the Chinese economy tanks, the CCP will have no choice but to put a halt to almost all nuclear spending thus saving the world from certain disaster.

Save the world, buy local goods.