VanEck Vectors Uranium Plus Nuclear Energy ETF (NLR)

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Xi Jinping Gives the Nod To China’s Expansion of Nuclear Energy
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-06-17/xi-jinping-gives-nod-to-china-s-expansion-of-nuclear-energy

China’s rapid urbanization is not only gulping up cement, but also water and energy. On Friday, China’s President Xi Jinping told a government meeting that development of nuclear energy should be accelerated. “By adopting top international standards and ensuring safety, China should lose no time in constructing nuclear power projects in eastern coastal regions,” Xi said, as state-run Xinhua newswire reported.

At the end of 2013, China’s 17 operational nuclear power plants were generating about 2 percent of the country’s total energy, according to Xinhua. But Ye Qizhen, an expert in nuclear energy at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, told the newswire that China should aim to get 10 percent of total energy from nuclear power.

While China suspended approving new nuclear plants in the immediate aftermath of the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan, China’s State Energy Commission announced plans in April to deploy an additional 8.6 gigawatts of nuclear power capacity, reported China Daily.

One of China’s nuclear power “moonshots” is a large research program in Shanghai to develop nuclear energy from thorium, as opposed to uranium. The effort is led by the politically powerful Jiang Mianheng, son of former leader Jiang Zemin. In 2012, Jiang told the Thorium Energy Conference: “China is the second largest economy in the world, [but] China is still in the stage of urbanization … which gives rise to huge demand for materials.”


http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/Country-Profiles/Countries-A-F/China--Nuclear-Power/

Nuclear Power in China

(Updated July 2014)

Mainland China has 20 nuclear power reactors in operation, 28 under construction, and more about to start construction.
Additional reactors are planned, including some of the world's most advanced, to give more than a three-fold increase in nuclear capacity to at least 58 GWe by 2020, then some 150 GWe by 2030, and much more by 2050.
The impetus for increasing nuclear power share in China is increasingly due to air pollution from coal-fired plants.
China’s policy is for closed fuel cycle.
China has become largely self-sufficient in reactor design and construction, as well as other aspects of the fuel cycle, but is making full use of western technology while adapting and improving it.
China’s policy is to ‘go global’ with exporting nuclear technology including heavy components in the supply chain.