China's Floating Nuke Plants Up South China Sea Ante

They would also potentially be vulnerable to military and terrorist attacks, sabotage, tsunamis or extreme storms. The South China Sea provides 12% of the world's fish catch and transit to around one-third of global sea trade, meaning any accident would be catastrophic.

The Washington Post also points out China's spotty nuclear safety record, noting in particular the 2021 Taishan Nuclear Power Plant incident. It says that while the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) seeks to issue safety standards for floating nuclear reactors, China and Russia have slowed the process, with China reportedly seeking to influence the IAEA into developing less stringent standards.

The Ukraine war may have accelerated China's floating nuclear power plant program, with Russia and China announcing a “no-limits” partnership in strategic areas such as nuclear technology .

Meanwhile, Russia's flagging arms sales and Western-led sanctions on its energy sector may have motivated it to seek alternative sources of revenue, including nuclear technology exports to China.

In a January 2024 report for the China Aerospace Studies Institute (CASI) , Daniel Shats notes that Russia's Rosatom Overseas and China National Nuclear Cooperation (CNNC) New Energy signed a Memorandum of Intent in 2014 to collaborate specifically on creating floating nuclear power plants.

Three years later, in 2017, CNNC announced plans to construct as many as 20 floating nuclear plants in the South China Sea.

Shats points out that the plants would provide electricity and water to China's various contested, artificially built regional features. Despite these plans, China's floating nuclear power plants have yet to be completed and apparently do not involve much collaboration with Russia.

However, in September 2021, Rosatom awarded a US$226 million contract to Chinese shipbuilding firm Wison (Nantong) Heavy Industries to build two more hulls to be used for floating nuclear power plants to power the Baimsky mining and processing plant in Chukotka in northeast Siberia. Russia has plans to build four more such plants, including the two with China-supplied hulls.

Shats mentions that while the Russia-China bilateral relationship has become increasingly lopsided in favor of China since the Ukraine war, nuclear technology is one field where Russia maintains a dominant position over China, including in floating nuclear reactors and nuclear waste management.

However, he says China still strongly prioritizes indigenous development, despite substantial nuclear technology cooperation with Russia.

In a November 2018 Belfer Center article , Viet Phuong Nguyen mentions that while China initially considered importing floating nuclear reactor technology from Russia, China announced it would use an indigenous ACPR50S reactor designed by China General Nuclear Power (CGN) to support offshore oil and gas exploration activities in the Paracel and Spratly Islands and sustain its civilian presence in those areas.

According to CGN , the ACPR50S has a capacity of 50 megawatts and is intended to supply power for offshore oil production, desalination operations, heating and cooling for coastal areas and islands, and provide fresh water.

Despite that, Nguyen points out that land scarcity in China's occupied features in the South China Sea makes civilian settlement very unlikely, bringing the military aspect of the endeavor to the fore.

He notes that deploying a floating nuclear reactor in the South China Sea solidifies China's territorial claims and raises the potential cost of any US attack on China's occupied features.

He also says China's research into floating nuclear reactors could help advance its aircraft carrier program. China plans to have six aircraft carriers by 2035 , and while it has three conventionally powered carriers, its fourth will most likely be nuclear-powered.

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Despite the controversy surrounding floating nuclear reactors, they have the potential to revolutionize energy security and renewable energy.

In a November 2023 IAEA article , Lucy Ashton says the technology can provide a reliable energy supply in far-flung maritime areas, on remote islands or in coastal communities.

Ashton notes an increasing interest in using small modular reactors (SMR) on floating platforms or barges to provide clean energy and heat to remote coastal areas, decarbonize offshore oil, gas or mining operations and even generate grid-scale electricity production at lower costs.

She says floating nuclear reactors set themselves apart from their naval and icebreaker counterparts by generating low-carbon energy and heat for various uses such as hydrogen production, district heating and desalination.

The reactors can be produced in a factory, assembled in a shipyard and moved to the desired destination, a process that could decrease the time and expenses associated with construction.

However, Ashton points out that the mobility of floating nuclear reactors poses questions about licensing and regulation when they cross country borders or operate in international waters.

In particular, she asks how these processes would work when a floating nuclear reactor is built and fueled in one country's jurisdiction and transported to another.

While noting the IAEA is still working on safety standards for floating nuclear reactors, she says they could help archipelagic countries replace coal-fired power plants and produce hydrogen to be converted into green ammonia for shipping and agricultural use.