BEIJING - Chinese nuclear reactors underwent about 130 irregular shutdowns due to glitches at key facilities and human error between 2011 and 2024, even after Beijing boosted safety measures following the 2011 Fukushima nuclear crisis in Japan, according to Chinese government reports.
Kyodo News analyzed data released by China's National Nuclear Safety Administration. The Asian powerhouse does not usually disclose details of incidents at its nuclear power plants, and reports by the International Atomic Energy Agency have not covered statistics related to reactor shutdowns in China, according to experts.
During the same period, incidents of trouble occurred more than 500 times at Chinese nuclear power plants and other facilities related to nuclear energy, the reports of the country's nuclear watchdog showed.
In June 2015, the control rod drive mechanism at the No. 3 reactor of the Ningde nuclear power plant in the southeastern province of Fujian suffered a total power outage. Due to a similar problem, the No. 3 reactor at the Hongyanhe nuclear power plant in the northeastern province of Liaoning was shut down in November 2019.
The irregular shutdowns included six serious incidents that were all rated Level 1, the second lowest severity on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale, which ranges from 0 to 7.
The 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster and the 1986 Chernobyl disaster were classified as Level 7 incidents, the most severe rating, while the 1995 sodium coolant leak at the Monju prototype fast-breeder reactor in Japan's Fukui Prefecture was rated Level 1.
The world's second-largest economy has been rapidly expanding its nuclear power generation capacity, increasing the number of operational nuclear reactors from 15 in late 2011 to 59 at the end of 2025. Its total power generation capacity ranked third in the world behind the United States and France.
Following the Fukushima nuclear crisis triggered by the devastating March 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, the Chinese government halted construction of new nuclear facilities and reviewed safety measures. It resumed construction of new plants in 2012.
Meanwhile, Japan had 54 nuclear reactors before the 2011 Fukushima nuclear crisis. During a 14-year period through late March in 2011, Japanese reactors were halted more than 90 times, according to the country's Nuclear Regulation Authority.
The Chinese government controls information that is deemed inconvenient for promoting nuclear power.
Until Western media reported on the case in June 2021, Chinese authorities had not promptly released information following an incident at the Taishan nuclear plant in Guangdong Province, in which fuel rods were damaged and radiation level increased in the reactor coolant.
The authorities kept running a Taishan complex reactor for atomic power generation, claiming that minor fuel-rod damage is "a common phenomenon," before halting the unit in July 2021 for inspections and repairs.
China also stopped publishing data on radioactive materials released from domestic nuclear plants in 2024.
The move followed reports by overseas media in 2024 that Chinese nuclear power plants in 2022 released wastewater containing tritium at levels up to nine times higher than the annual discharge limit set for the substance at Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear complex.
A Japanese nuclear power expert called for "continued external monitoring" of China's opaque atomic power generation policy.
