With the maturity of nuclear technology around the world, nuclear energy has been able to be used in many fields, such as military, medical, electricity and so on. At present, China has built seven nuclear power plants, each of which has provided a great force for China's electricity production, and seven nuclear power plants also represent that China's nuclear power technology is in a leading state in the world. Perhaps in the future, nuclear power can also become China's new business card like "high-speed rail" and "infrastructure". In 2016, the UK invited China to help them build a nuclear power plant. Originally, China, as a major shareholder with 30% of the equity, could gain huge benefits after the completion of the nuclear power plant, but China took the initiative to withdraw from the nuclear power project in the UK some time ago, and was also said by the British media to be dishonest. What is going on?

Carbon neutral

As early as September 2020, Western countries began to promote energy conservation and emission reduction, and gradually achieve zero carbon dioxide emissions. Then, countries have put forward the goal of carbon neutrality, but until now only China has made a clear "construction plan" for "carbon neutrality". There is no doubt that to achieve zero CO2 emissions, coal must no longer be burned. You know that the reason why the thermal power station can produce electricity is to rely on the combustion of coal, so the thermal power station is doomed to be eliminated. There are many alternatives to thermal power plants, such as wind power, solar power, hydropower, etc., but in the end, the most promising alternative to thermal power is nuclear power plants. Why do you say that?

Advantages of nuclear power plants

First, power stations are all about output. The power generation of nuclear power plants is unmatched by hydropower, wind power and even thermal power, because nuclear energy is more efficient than fossil fuels, so the power generation of nuclear power plants is much higher than the traditional power generation while consuming the same weight of fuel, so the power generation of nuclear power plants is extremely large. The second is the safety of power stations, nuclear power is an internationally recognized safe energy, is the smallest accident rate of power stations, the world's more than 50 years of nuclear energy use history, only in the 1970s and 1980s had a serious accident. Then is the environmental protection of the power station, with the proposed carbon neutral goal, environmental protection, energy saving is the label that the future power station must have, nuclear power plants in the process of power generation is no pollutant emissions, very suitable for achieving carbon neutral goals.

UK 240 billion nuclear power plant project

In addition to China, Western developed countries are also speeding up the construction of nuclear power plants, such as the United Kingdom. Although the United Kingdom is a developed country, but in the field of nuclear power technology is not as good as our country, in 2016 the United Kingdom invited China, France to build nuclear power plants, which China and France are nuclear power, but China's investment is still the highest, is simply to pay and contribute, not only the largest shareholder, or the most effective helper. The news of this cooperation directly detonated the international forum, because the nuclear power plant project is the largest and most expensive project of the year, the construction cost reached 240 billion yuan, coupled with China, Britain, France, the three major powers, many people are very optimistic about this project.

Britain's unreasonable demands

It should be known that the United Kingdom had tried to build nuclear power plants twice before this joint venture, and the results ended in failure, and this invitation came to China and France, the two major nuclear power countries, the United Kingdom did value the nuclear power plant project at the beginning, but when the project was half built, the United Kingdom began to "make a demon". Britain not only requires the use of nuclear power plants to upgrade a grade, but also requires that this part of the capital come from China, because China is the largest investor. From the moral point of view, although the UK is not doing right, but from the project point of view, the UK's request to upgrade the material grade is also for the better construction of this nuclear power plant, so we tolerate it. But what happened next, we couldn't bear it anyway.

Britain stalling, China pulling out

Since the start of construction in 2016, the UK has constantly put forward some conditions to delay the construction period, which could have started long ago, and the result is that even a factory has not been built in the past three years. It is not easy to start work in 2019, and the epidemic has arrived in 2020. The epidemic in the UK was very serious at that time, and the Chinese workers had already evacuated and returned home. A year later, the epidemic in China has been brought under control, but the UK is still not under control. Now, it is completely annoyed our country, you asked for material promotion, we agreed, but you repeatedly delay the construction period, constantly wear out our patience, and constantly lose our economy, our Chinese team directly withdrew from the project.

The benefits of building nuclear power stations in Britain

After the withdrawal of funds, the UK has no choice. Because of Britain's economy and technology, it is not allowed to spend hundreds of billions of dollars to build nuclear power plants, if it can be built, it is good, if it cannot be built, it is a waste. To this day, we do not understand why the UK did what it did. First of all, the UK is located in the European region, the lack of natural resources, every year needs to import a large amount of natural gas for power generation, natural gas is not only more expensive, power generation is not much, if the nuclear power plant can be successfully built, will help Britain greatly reduce the pressure on energy. China, Britain and France have a rare opportunity to jointly build nuclear power plants, and Britain does not know what is the wind. Some people say that the UK may be afraid of China getting huge benefits.

The British media said: no credibility

As the largest investor, China should reap huge benefits. In addition to the economic benefits, the completion of the British nuclear power plant project can not only provide rich experience for China's nuclear power technology, but also the reputation of China's nuclear power, and in the future, countries around the world should consider whether they should invite China to build nuclear power plants. But since Britain is not willing to let China help build it, neither will China. After such a long delay in the construction period before our withdrawal, we thought that Britain would not say anything more, but as soon as our withdrawal, the British media began to let loose their rhetoric, saying that we are not trustworthy, and that we are retaliating against them.

Honesty is the most important thing

You know, China has always been known for its integrity in international cooperation. Even when we helped Saudi Arabia build a high-speed railway, we did not give up on a difficult project, which shows that we always have a friendly and positive attitude when we go out to cooperate, unlike what the British media said. Of course, in the face of the British media's accusations, our country did not pay attention, because the discerning people are very clear. In international cooperation, integrity is the most important thing, China can still get orders from other countries, but not necessarily the UK. Editor/Xu Shengpeng