Nowadays, China is one of the countries with very fast growth of electricity generation. Although the electrical capacity, that is 198GW in 1994, has almost reached the third position in the world, it is still far from meeting the demands for the development of the national economy. Last year, the whole country had a lack of 20% electricity. Lots of enterprises could not operate in full load, especially in the coastal areas. The shortage of electricity has actually become "bottle neck" of the national economy development in China. As well known, the coal reserves are abundant in China, but there would be three aspects of challenges available to develop more coal fired plants. The first, about 80% coal resources concentrated in the north, and north-west China, whereas in the coastal areas with both a dense population and a well-developed economy the energy sources arc extremely scarce. Billion tons' coal transportation every year is a heavy burden on railways and motoways; The second, the coal production reached 1.2 billion tons per year in 1994. It could hardly increase further for the time being in China, because of the productivity limitation; The third, the large amount of coal burning will result in a serious impact on the environment. In summary, to cope with the crowded transportation, the energy shortage, and the impact on the environment, it is necessary to use nuclear power in China. Therefore, great importance is attached to the position and role of nuclear power as an alternative energy source. Particularly, in coastal areas, people have few options other than development of nuclear power.
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