Part 1 of 2 Parts
As the U.S. and China trade war seem to be cooling, China is poised to dominate the global nuclear reactor industry. Nuclear power has great strategic importance both diplomatically and as a way of combatting climate change. The Trump Administration views China as a major adversary both militarily and economically. This extends to the Chinese focus on the export on nuclear power reactors. Critics of the Chinese ambitions demand that the U.S. federal government fund and guide the revival of the U.S. nuclear industry in order to compete abroad against Russia and China as they attempt to corner the global market for nuclear power reactors.
On the other hand, many in the U.S. nuclear industry feel that it may be a mistake to see Russia and China as a single challenge for nuclear power supremacy. The fact is that Russia and China are competing for market share. They are not cooperating in an attempt to capture the global market in nuclear power plant export and construction. China has risen to give Russia a serious competitor in the global nuclear marketplace and this is a benefit to the U.S. nuclear industry. The U.S. has an opportunity to influence the global nuclear export market in a way that will ensure safety and protection for countries purchasing Chinese hardware and expertise in the construction of nuclear power reactors.
Russia currently claims that they account for about sixty percent of worldwide nuclear power reactor sales. This position has been achieved through offering buyers generous export packages. Russia offers cheaper nuclear reactor designs and financing options. Some of the development organizations in other countries and treaties between other countries prohibit the use of public money to finance nuclear power reactor construction. Cheaper natural gas has also contributed to constraining the competition in the global nuclear export market.
While Russia is currently dominating nuclear power reactor sales, China is busy developing a nuclear industry that is poised to battle for global nuclear market share. China’s nuclear industry is relatively young when compared to Russia’s but it produces the third biggest share of domestic nuclear energy. They plan to add as much as three hundred gigawatts of nuclear energy in the next ten to twenty years. The Chinese domestic market for nuclear power is the greatest in the world and that scale factor provides a path to Chinese nuclear export dominance.
Although domestic nuclear power production is a priority for China, its nuclear ambitions do not stop at its borders. The Chinese national government has created incentives that will encourage nuclear power reactor exports and drive the Chinese nuclear industry into foreign markets. This includes laws that support nuclear exports both financially and technologically. China’s nuclear industry now enjoys the same advantages that launched Russia to its current dominance of the nuclear export industry. State ownership of utilities helps them deal with funding issues, reduces the public impact of big natural disasters and provides them with security and diplomatic support.
China has also adopted the financing option that has helped to drive Russia to nuclear export market dominance. This is referred to as the build, own, and operate (BOO) model. This means that the exporting country handles all the aspects of design, construction, operation and nuclear waste handling for an exported nuclear power reactor. This results in long term dependence of the buyer on the seller.
Please read Part 2 next