By Hong Soon-do, Beijing correspondent, AsiaToday - China is expected to be the world's biggest nuclear power producer by 2030 . It seems certain that China will have more than 110 nuclear reactors in operation by 2030, exceeding the number in the U.S. In the next five years, China is planning to construct six to eight reactors a year.

The view of a nuclear power plant located in Fuqing, China./ Source from search engine Baidu.

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According to Beijing sources on Monday, China currently operates 25 nuclear reactors with a further 26 under construction. Since the nuclear disaster took place at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant in March 2011, China has frozen new nuclear projects for five years, in principle. However, under its 13th five-year national development plan, which starts in 2016, China will unfreeze new projects and build six to eight reactors a year. Of course, China will introduce domestically developed reactors.

The Chinese government plans to invest 500 billion yuan (KRW 50 trillion) to construct reactors. It is definite that the budget plan will be formally adopted at the upcoming annual session of the National People's Congress, which will take place next spring.

Currently, China is the world's fifth largest nuclear power producer in terms of capacity, following the U.S., France, Japan, and Russia. Under its plan, the country is expected to become the world's top nuclear power producer by 2030. Meanwhile, we must say that nuclear safety is another matter to be considered. This is why anti-nuclear activists including political dissidents are desperately up in arms against the government's policy.