China's largest nuke firm holds open house to allay concerns

China's largest nuclear power company has held an open house event as part of efforts to make its operations more transparent, weeks after it dropped plans to build an atomic processing plant due to public opposition.
The China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN), operator of the Daya Bay Nuclear Power Plant in the city of Shenzhen in southern Guangdong Province, said the event will help boost public trust in the safety of nuclear power.
Hu Guangyao, a CGN spokesman, said at a press conference held at the Daya plant that the company can provide timely responses to safety concerns through increased communication with the public.

The 2011 leakage of radioactive material from the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan has raised concerns about nuclear safety in China.
A planned CGN nuclear fuel processing project in Guangdong's city of Heshan was cancelled in July due to opposition from local residents.
Wu Yuxiong, mayor of Heshan, said while addressing complaints that the Heshan government respects the public's opinion and will not apply for approval for the project.

CGN supplies 53 per cent of China's nuclear power.
It is the largest nuclear power plant builder in the world and its Daya plant is currently China's largest nuclear plant.

In March this year, China announced plans to increase its installed nuclear power generation capacity to 20 per cent.
By 2020 China will have the third-largest number of nuclear power-generating units in operation, following the US and France, He Yu, Chairman of the China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group has said.
According to a government white paper on energy released in October 2012, China had 15 nuclear power-generating units in operation with a total installed capacity of 12.54 GW. China has another 30 units currently under construction, which will add another 32.81 GW.