The Chinese government has published a white paper on the nuclear policy, lowering its target for the construction of nuclear power plants by 2015, notably by not building more nuclear reactors at inland locations.
Only coastal sites will be approved in the 12th plan period (2011-2015), meaning significant rescheduling for inland projects at Taohuajiang, Xianning and Pengze, which had previously been expected to start construction before 2015. Each site was expected to host four AP1000 units.
Furthermore, China will require new plants to be built with “third generation” technology. China's imported EPR and AP1000 reactors are considered Generation-III, but the CPR-1000 design developed from previous French imports has been variously described as Generation-II or Generation-II+. Pre-Fukushima plans had in excess of 50 CPR-1000s at various stages of planning, in addition to the two in operation and 15 under construction at the moment.
China halted approvals for new nuclear projects in March 2011, following the Fukushima events in Japan, and undertook a big review of its nuclear safety practices.
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