The leading position of China in solar panels and electric vehicles is well known, but the speed at which China is building nuclear power plants is equally impressive, making it rapidly become a leader in the global nuclear energy field. The number of nuclear reactors under construction in China is almost equivalent to the total of all other countries in the world. By 2030, China's nuclear power capacity is expected to exceed that of the United States, the country that was the first to generate electricity through splitting atoms. Many of China's reactors are based on American and French designs, but China has overcome the construction delays and cost overruns that Western countries often encounter when expanding nuclear power. At the same time, China continues to push forward, driving the development of next-generation nuclear technology. China is also heavily investing in nuclear fusion, which could become a potential source of unlimited clean energy if mastered by anyone. Beijing's ultimate goal is to become a global supplier of nuclear power, standing alongside a small group of countries such as the United States, Russia, France, and South Korea that can design and export the most advanced nuclear power equipment. In the context of Sino-US competition, energy has become a battlefield of geopolitics, and nuclear power is regaining global attention, especially as climate change becomes increasingly severe. The Trump administration plans to quadruple the U.S. nuclear power capacity by 2050, while hoping to develop next-generation reactor technology to power domestic data centers and export to countries with high energy demand. U.S. officials are concerned that if China dominates the nuclear power export market, it will expand its global influence. China's obvious advantage lies in its ability to build reactors relatively quickly and at low cost. Currently, China takes only five to six years to assemble a reactor, twice as fast as Western countries. Since 2000, the cost of nuclear power plant construction in China has decreased by about half and stabilized; whereas since the 1960s, the cost of nuclear power plant construction in the United States has soared. In this century, the United States has only completed two reactors, the Vogtle Nuclear Power Plant in Waynesboro, Georgia, which took 11 years and cost $35 billion. These two reactors started in 2013, were delayed by seven years and over budget by $17 billion before being completed, becoming the most expensive nuclear reactors in the United States. Meanwhile, during the same period, China built 13 similar reactors, and there are another 33 under construction.
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Original article: www.toutiao.com/article/1847654308217866/
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