BEIJING, March 8 (UPI) -- China's growing nuclear power industry will make it the world's largest uranium user, overtaking the United States by the next decade, an energy official said.
Uranium imports will rise sharply by the 2020s to power the industry, Qian Zhimin, deputy director of the National Energy Administration, told the China Daily.
However, he assured that with advance planning there will be no surge in global uranium prices.
"It is a question of time" when China will surpass the United States as the largest uranium consumer, Qian said. "It should happen sometime before 2030."
He said by 2020, nuclear power could be contributing 7 percent to 8 percent of China's electricity, more than the government's target of 5 percent.
China has 11 nuclear reactors with 13 under construction to reduce the country's reliance on coal, the report said.
The World Nuclear Association was quoted as saying China is planning to construct an additional 187 nuclear reactors. The agency estimates China's annual uranium consumption would reach 20,000 tons by 2020, about a third of 2009 global output.
The report said China's Nuclear Energy Association has estimated future plants would require more than 400 tons of uranium each to start operating.
China's uranium imports last year totaled 17,136 tons, three times higher than in 209.
Currently, the United States, France and Japan are the world's major uranium consumers.
