Nuclear power is important to China because of its quest for climate change mitigation, an expert with the environment ministry has said.

"The Chinese nuclear industry still feels confident to meet the installed capacity targets of 40 million and 70 million kilowatts by 2015 and 2020 respectively," Ren Junsheng, a member of the nuclear safety commission, said Saturday.

He was speaking at a seminar entitled "One year after the Fukushima nuclear accident - the way forward with safety and risk engineering" in the City University of Hong Kong, reports Xinhua.

Ren said after the devastating Fukushima accident, China conducted safety inspections of its nuclear plants, the scope of which included appropriateness of site selection, ability to withstand earthquakes and floods, and monitoring and emergency preparedness.

Experts from Japan, China, France and the US attended.

The Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant in Japan was struck by a devastating earthquake and an ensuing tsunami March 11 last year, resulting in a series of equipment failure.

related report
Vietnam holds meet on n-power
Vietnam Thursday held discussions with foreign experts on building nuclear power operations in the country.

The discussion was organised by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST). Participants included experts from Russia, France, Japan, the US, South Korea, Germany and Britain.

Addressing the conference, MoST Deputy Minister Le Dinh Tien said nuclear power has become an important power source worldwide, Xinhua reported.

Vietnam's consistent viewpoint is to use nuclear power for peaceful purposes, he said.

According to a master plan, Vietnam's first nuclear plant will be launched by 2020.

In November 2009, Vietnam's National Assembly approved a project to build two nuclear power plants in central Ninh Thuan province with a capacity of about 4,000 MW.

Vietnam has signed cooperative agreements with Russia and Japan on building these plants.

Source: Indo-Asia News Service