Kang Rixin, general manager of China National Nuclear Corp., made the comment at a briefing on the development of nuclear-powered electricity and his company's cooperation with the international community. China analysts noted the news conference was timed to coincide with the start of an anticipated summer power crunch in parts of the country.

In May, United Press International reported there will be a 5 percent gap between electricity production and consumption in China during 2005.

Power transfers among provinces and regions, as well as stabilizing coal prices and delivery of supplies, will be major challenges for the State Electricity Regulatory Commission this summer.

Commission Vice Chairman Shi Yubo announced a four-pronged plan in May for the shortfall period, including energy production safety as an overriding priority; tight demand-side management to stagger peak usage times; intensifying regional and provincial power transfers; and maintaining electricity market order.

Staggering of peak periods means satellite cities outside major centers such as Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai will experience brownouts, though these are not predicted to be as bad as in summer 2004.

A quarter century ago, opponents of nuclear energy in the United States coined the phrase "China Syndrome" to warn about dire results stemming from the lack of power plant safety precautions. Today's risk of a China Syndrome is to the global economy if the Asian giant doesn't redress its mounting energy crisis, one that includes increased electricity production as well as greater efficiency in the power it uses.

According to the U.N. Development Program, within the next 15 years China's gross domestic product is predicted to quadruple while its production of energy is expected only to double. It is already the planet's second-largest consumer of energy after the United States. Combined, the two economies account for nearly one-third of world energy consumption, with the United States using 21 percent and China 8.5 percent.

The U.S. Department of Energy reported in March 2005 that Chinese industries were energy intensive and economy-wide waste was significant. The country uses three times more energy per dollar of its GDP than the global average and 4.7 times more than the United States, the department's Energy Information Administration said.

Khalid Malik, U.N. Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in China, said Monday the country faced a " significant challenge to improve energy efficiency and to address the issue of climate change."

Malik made the comment at the start of the China End-Use Energy Efficiency Program, a joint initiative involving the UNDP and the country's National Development and Reform Commission to tackle the country's dilemma of growing energy demand and severe energy shortage.

China's electricity problem lies in its heavy reliance on thermal power (approximately 75 percent) followed by hydro power (almost 23 percent), and Kang from the CNNC saying Monday nuclear energy accounted for 2.3 percent of power production.

Scott Roberts, a Beijing-based analyst with Cambridge Energy Research Associates, told UPI that thermal energy in China was "overwhelmingly coal," responsible for over 90 percent of the electricity produced in such a manner as opposed to power plants fueled by oil or natural gas.

The country's heavy dependence on coal as a primary source of electricity poses great pressures on sustaining its impressive economic development. The high sulfur content of Chinese coal has resulted in the country having 16 of the world's 20 most polluted cities. China's coal mines have the worst safety record on the planet, resulting in thousands of deaths each year and raising the prospect of labor unrest.

Moreover, the locations of coal resources are in the country's interior provinces whereas most of its energy demand is focused in coastal provinces, the engine driving the economy. Rail and trucking infrastructure bottlenecks have stretched distribution capacities to the breaking point.

Kang told reporters China has 19 nuclear facilities; nine that are operational and 10 under currently construction, including two that will come on line in late 2005 or early 2006. The two reactors at Daya Bay in southern Guandong were supplied by Framatome, a French company. It supplies 70 percent of its energy to neighboring Hong Kong with the remainder used in the province.

There are two reactors at another location in Guangdong, Ling'ao, which also use Framatome.

The other littoral province providing nuclear energy in China is Zhejiang's Qinshan facility which has a mixed bag of Japanese (Mitsubishi), Canadian (AECL) and locally produced technologies in its five reactors on line.

According to a report issued by the World Nuclear Association in April 2005, two Russian AES-91 power plants (with 1000 MWe VVER reactors) are being constructed at Tianwan in Liangyungang Jiangsu province under a cooperation agreement between China and Russia. Additional reactors are planned in China, to give a fivefold increase in nuclear capacity to 40 MWe by 2020 Kang told reporters.

U.S. nuclear power plant provider Westinghouse faces French and Russian competition in contracts for third generation CNNC plants at Sanmen (Zhejiang) and Yanjiang (Guandong) to be awarded this year.

Analysts say these bids are critical in shaping foreign participation in the nuclear power industry up to 2020.

Recognizing that nuclear technology sales to China would help the United States address its massive trade imbalance with the Chinese, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has cleared the transfer of technology while the U.S. Export-Import bank has approved $5 billion in loan guarantees for the Westinghouse bid.

Kang said the CNNC had not made its final choice yet, but a decision was impeding.

Concerning a decision of such magnitude involving billions of dollars Kang noted, "we are looking at three things: technology levels, technology transfer and price sensitivity."

His response on whether the ups and downs of Sino-American relations were a consideration was diplomatic: "from my perspective, there's no politics, the decision is about technology for economic development."

The most important perspective on Chinese nuclear power derives from its history, the non-peaceful use of the technology.

China detonated its first atomic device in 1964 without outside help; it will continue to rely on its own development capacities first then take what it can grab from the outside world second.

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