[Ynet] China has cancelled plans to build a uranium processing plant in a southern Chinese city a day after hundreds of protesters erupted into the streets demanding the project be scrapped, a local government website said on Saturday.
The proposed 230-hectare complex in the heart of China's Pearl River delta industrial heartland in Guangdong province had also sparked unease in neighbouring Hong Kong and Macau. A one-line statement published on the Heshan city government's website said that "to respect people's desire, the Heshan government will not propose the China National Nuclear Corporation project".
| China is in a race between building a modern military with which to supplant America as world hegemon, an aging population, and an economy precariously balanced on the cusp between boom and bust. The country desperately needs more energy for both the comfort of the population and the needs of manufacturing, but coal-fired plants both rely on foreign supplies and are such dreadful polluters that it is estimated that current levels of pollution have reduced the average lifespan by five years. And yet, for some reason the populace does not trust the government to safely provide nuclear power. Whyever could that be, dear Reader? |
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