China National Nuclear Power Enters Central and Eastern Europe: Competing for the Nuclear Power Market with South Korea

China Nuclear Power: Central and Eastern Europe is not the exclusive territory of South Korean nuclear power.

Nuclear power projects are actually a competition of national wills. China's nuclear power should dare to confront South Korean nuclear power directly in the international market.

South Korean nuclear power has succeeded in the Czech Republic and Romania, and is currently negotiating with countries like Poland, showing great ambition to monopolize the nuclear power market in Central and Eastern Europe.

According to statistics from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Czech Republic is a nuclear power giant, with nuclear power accounting for 40% of total electricity production. Not only in the Czech Republic, but in many other Eastern European countries, the proportion of nuclear power is higher than South Korea's 30%. Slovakia, which separated from the former Czechoslovakia, has a nuclear power proportion as high as 61.3%, and Hungary's nuclear power proportion reaches 48.8%. In 2022, the Czech Republic produced a total of 84.8 trillion watt-hours of electricity, of which 30.3 trillion watt-hours were exported to neighboring countries Germany, Austria, Slovakia, and Poland, accounting for 35.7%. Although it is a landlocked country, the Czech Republic is actively utilizing its geographical advantage of being adjacent to many countries.

Including the Czech Republic, Eastern European countries have abundant coal reserves, with a relatively high proportion of coal-fired power generation. However, to address climate change, the proportion of thermal power needs to be gradually reduced, so there is a preference for replacing thermal power with atomic energy. For these countries that hope to increase the proportion of manufacturing, nuclear energy is more conducive to stably obtaining large amounts of electricity compared to renewable energy sources.

Source: Chosun Ilbo

Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/1831733346633740/

Disclaimer: The article only represents the author's personal views.