In line with the Chinese government's policy of promoting nuclear energy, it has played an active role in a number of international or bilateral cooperative activities on the utilisation of nuclear power.
•Cooperation with IAEA.
The international nuclear community currently believes that it is too early to forecast the future of nuclear power, However, at the 45th Regular Session of the IAEA General Conference, the China Atomic Energy Authority (CAEA) spoke out for promoting nuclear energy for the sustainable development of national and global economy.
Zhang Huazhu, director of the CAEA, pointed out in his session speech that in addition to reiterating China's strategy of developing nuclear power in the current 5-Year Development Plan, he called for more R&D into a new generation of safe civil reactors, that will be economically competitive and non-proliferate. He advocated that such R&D projects take into account the special interests of the developing countries for long-term benefits. China has already sent a list of project requests to the IAEA.
Included on the list are such items as: study on seismic safety for advanced PWRs, study on safety design criteria for research reactors, study on critical safety in storage, transportation, and processing of spent fuel.
•Cooperation with France.
On 24-25 September 2001, the Sino-French Cooperation Directorate and Coordination Joint Committee on the Peaceful Use of Nuclear Energy met in Paris. This was the first meeting of the two parties since the 7th Cooperation Agreement on the Peaceful Use of Nuclear Energy was signed by the two governments in Beijing on 19 July 2000. During the meeting, the committee exchanged information on the current situations of domestic nuclear power industry and government policies. The meeting resulted in a specific agreement on the cooperative activities during the period 2001-2002. Previously, six agreements of the similar cooperation have been successfully implemented by the two nations since 1982. The cooperative activities cover a wide range of areas such as reactor technology, nuclear safety and radiation protection, nuclear fusion, research reactors and fuel technololgy.
•Cooperation with Korea.
On 24-25 October 2001, China and South Korea held the second ministerial meeting of the Joint Committee on Nuclear Energy in Beijing. The members from both sides exchanged views on the peaceful utilisation of nuclear energy and discussed issues of bilateral cooperation in this field. At the present time, some Chinese nuclear power plants like Daya Bay have sister-plant relations with Korean power stations. Some technical and managerial exchanges in such areas as outage management, technical support and training have been successfully implemented.
