The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported that Liu Hua, head of the National Nuclear Safety Administration, said US multilateralism and protectionism behind the move would harm the interests of companies in both countries, but could strengthen Chinese firms’ research and development and improve their creativity.
He also pointed out that the market for nuclear cooperation was wide, and that other countries, besides the US, were already involved in China’s nuclear industry.
France and Russia were among China’s nuclear cooperation partners and cooperative projects, including nuclear power facilities and reprocessing plants, were making progress, Mr Liu said.
The US Department of Commerce placed China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN) and its subsidiaries on its entity list in August, alleging the companies had “engaged in or enabled efforts to acquire advanced US nuclear technology and material for diversion to military uses in China”.
CGN told Chinese state media Securities Times that, after preliminary analysis, the group believed the impact on CGN’s development would be limited.
As of July, CGN had 23 commercial nuclear reactors in operation with a capacity of 25 gigawatts and five under construction with a capacity of 6.35GW, the South China Morning Post said.
