JAPAN'S worsening nuclear crisis has prompted China to take a closer look at its own plans to triple the number of the nation's nuclear reactors in the next five years.
The State Council, China's Cabinet, announced on Wednesday that approval for all new reactors will be frozen pending a "thorough safety assessment" utilizing "the most advanced standards."
The decision came as the eyes of the world were focused on the threat of a meltdown in reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant on the northeastern coast of Honshu in Japan, which were crippled by last week's magnitude-9 earthquake.
Vice Minister of Environmental Protection Zhang Lijun said China must learn lessons from the Japanese nuclear disaster, which is now being dubbed the world's worst since Chernobyl in 1986.
However, he said China has no plans to abandon nuclear power as part of the nation's energy mix.
China currently has 13 nuclear power reactors in operation and plans to increase that number to 40 by 2015. At present, more than 25 reactors are already under construction, and the new freeze won't affect their development.
By contrast, the United States now has 104 reactors, Japan has 55 and Britain operates 19.
The 2011-2015 Five-Year Plan calls for China to increase nuclear power capacity to 40 gigawatts from 10.8 gigawatts last year.
By 2020, Chinese government wants to expand nuclear power capacity to 70 gigawatts or more, accounting for about 5 percent of the nation's electricity production.
Nuclear power is part of a wider strategy to cut carbon emissions and switch to cleaner energy. By 2020, the nation is hoping to derive 15 percent of its energy from non-fossil fuel sources, including nuclear, hydro, solar and wind power.
It's not only China that is pausing to reflect on nuclear power safety in the midst of the Japanese disaster. Governments across the globe, those with nuclear reactors and those contemplating them, are re-examining issues of safety and risk.
China has never experienced a serious nuclear accident since its first reactor went into operation in 1991. The country is ranked among the safest operators of nuclear plants by the International Atomic Energy Agency, said Zhang Guobao, former head of China's National Energy Administration.
Among the issues certain to emerge in China's review of its nuclear power plans is site selection for reactors.
China is prone to earthquakes, so locating power plants as far away from fault lines as possible is important, Zheng Mingguang, director of Shanghai Nuclear Engineering Research and Design Institute, told the Oriental Morning Post.
That's not as easy as it sounds. China, with no less than 23 seismic belts, accounts for about half of the earth's recorded quakes every year, according to data published by the Chinese National Geography magazine.
In the 20th century, China recorded 800 earthquakes of magnitude-6 or greater. An estimated 550,000 people died in the temblors during that time, the magazine reported, citing Han Zhujun, a researcher at the Institute of Geology, China Earthquake Administration.
All the proposed new plants in China are built on high land, and are designed to sustain an earthquake magnitude of least 8, according to Geng Qirui, a consultant at the Shanghai institute.
Still, the Japanese people had been assured that their nuclear plants were quake-proof, too. The sheer force of nature unleashed last week in Japan has served as a stark reminder of mankind's vulnerability in a technological era.
A report by the State Council Research Office, an independent body that makes policy recommendations to the State Council, has cautioned local governments to control their almost unbridled enthusiasm for nuclear energy, at least for the moment.