In an article yesterday, The China Daily quoted the deputy director of the National Energy Administration, Qian Zhiming, as saying, "China plans to import more uranium this year than last year and to buy uranium mines abroad, looking particularly toward Canada for that purpose."
The bulk of China’s uranium imports currently come from Eastern Europe and Australia, however, this latest statement highlights an active progression from the recent uranium trade cooperation announcement between Canada and China (scroll down to see an earlier blog post) and also falls in line with the recent statement from China’s Prime Minister Jiabao who announced an end to “blind expansion in industries such as solar energy and wind power”.
What I consider particularly important is that China appears to be officially and publicly drawing a line under the Fukushima event and this year is resuming its numerous nuclear power projects after spending the past year reviewing safety and security measures. Businessweek.com has covered the story here.
Dev Randhawa
