China to become top nuclear power producer

Rio Tinto manager predicts this scenario by the 2020s.

Stephen Wilson, general manager of markets and industry analysis for Rio Tinto Energy, said China was now either the world’s eighth or ninth largest nuclear energy producer.

He predicts China to become the second largest producer by the end of the decade, and will surpass the USA in the 2020s, producing 100 gigawatts of power. China’s stated goal is to produce 400 GW of nuclear power by 2050, which exceeds the world’s current production capacity for clean energy.

Wilson said nuclear energy’s growth in China will come from new third generation power plants that produce electricity more cheaply than coal and from gas plants in coastal locations.

''What we are looking at in China now is a situation where it is the very early stages of a very significant nuclear build program,'' Wilson said. ''This is a quiet revolution.''