Will China change its nuclear power development goal after the nuclear crisis in Japan? Yu Zhouping, former Head of the Chinese Delegation to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and Tian Jiashu, Director of the Nuclear Safety Center under the Ministry of Environmental Protection believe that China's nuclear power facilities are safe. As nuclear power is the only potential energy to replace thermal power on a large scale, they say China cannot afford to let disaster stall its nuclear expansion. Their edited opinions follow:

China's nuclear plants are currently in their prime, as its first nuclear plant, Qinshan Nuclear Power Station, came into service at the end of 1991. After the Three Mile Island nuclear power accident in the United States in 1979 and Chernobyl nuclear power accident in the former Soviet Union in 1986, the IAEA re-evaluated and upgraded the safety technology of nuclear power generation. China's nuclear power plants are using these upgraded technologies.

While constructing these power plants, China also learnt from the experience and lessons of the two nuclear power accidents in the United States and former Soviet Union, and adopted advanced and mature technologies to ensure their safety. After the seven nuclear stations were put into service, no distinct defect has been observed and no important nuclear safety accident has ever occurred in the past 20 years. The safety indices of the plants were generally higher than the global average.

China has strict laws, norms and technical rules to regulate the five stages of nuclear power plants: site selection, design, construction, testing and operation, and decommissioning. Competent departments also have strict technical examination and on-the-site supervision on these plants.

China has been attaching great importance to nuclear power safety. After the nuclear crisis of Japan, China immediately launched a full safety inspection on all the nuclear power plants in the country, in operation or under construction. China also temporarily suspended approval of new nuclear power projects. The country will also learn lessons from the nuclear accident in Japan in its future development of nuclear power plants.

Nuclear power is a clean and efficient energy. Of course, risks can be found in any technology. Nuclear power is no exception.

But we cannot totally abandon the development of nuclear power because of the risks, since most of the world's countries still need this kind of clean energy. Nuclear power plants discharge certain amount of emissive wastes during operation. It is normal. People can gradually solve these problems. After decades of operation, we have reduced the risks to the lowest level.

Nuclear power has a promising future and is a necessary option for the world's green development. China has decided to efficiently develop nuclear power on the basis of ensuring nuclear safety in its 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15).

So far, China has approved the construction of 26 reactors in 12 nuclear power projects with installed capacity of 2,655 mw; a total of 14 nuclear power project sites have been selected  and are listed for approval with expected installed capacity of 2,860 mw. In 2020, China's nuclear power is expected to account for 6 percent of the country's total installed power generation capacity. In this sense, nuclear energy should play a greater role in realizing the goal of clean energy accounting for 15 percent of the total in 2020.

We need to develop nuclear power to benefit the people, but we need to do more to protect our planet. On the one hand, we should effectively identify and prevent nuclear risks. This requires us to have much higher safety and technical norms as the basis of designing and assessing the safety of nuclear power plants, use more advanced, mature and reliable technologies to ensure safety, adopt stricter quality management and have better educated talents; on the other hand, we still need to strengthen our efforts to prevent accidents. In this regard, China has established mechanisms to prevent and handle emergencies. Meanwhile, we have earmarked necessary and sufficient resources to prevent disasters and reduce influences from disasters.