China Plans to Do the Opposite of Germany.

[NNadir]

Germany shut its nuclear plants to embrace coal.

China, by contrast is considering doing the exact opposite:

Chinese Officials Look at Converting Old Coal Plants to Nuclear Power Stations

Source: Power, September 15, 2025 by Darrel Proctor.

A Chinese state-owned energy infrastructure group has proposed a decarbonization plan that would increase the country’s use of nuclear power. The China Energy Engineering Group Co. (CEEC) is studying ways to convert retiring coal-fired power facilities into nuclear power plants, according to recent research reports.

CEEC has said its “Coal to Nuclear,” or C2N, strategy would enable new reactors to take advantage of the existing land, grid, and water access of those coal-fired plants, which would enable faster construction of new nuclear power generation resources. Government data shows China has about 1.2 TW of coal-fired power generation capacity, with about 100 GW slated for retirement in the next five years. The South China Morning Post outlined more details of the C2N plan in a September 15 report, writing “By repurposing coal plants’ established grid links, cooling systems and land, China hopes to cut costs, save time, and ease the challenge of finding suitable new sites for nuclear projects.”

The U.S. also has discussed using the infrastructure at retiring coal-fired power plants to support more nuclear power. The Biden administration’s 2022 Chips and Science Act included provisions to convert former coal plants to house reactors; the U.S. Dept. of Energy has identified more than 400 coal sites that could potentially be home to new nuclear power generation...

...Coal-fired power generates more than half of China’s electricity and is the country’s largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, which is why Chinese President Xi Jinping previously said he would “strictly control” the coal industry in order to “phase it down” between 2026 and 2030...

The article gives the de rigueur attention to so called "renewable energy," noting that China in 2024 invested almost 1 trillion dollars ($940 Billion) in "renewables," largely in wind and solar, although China, besides destroying countryside with solar and wind farms, has also destroyed some major river ecosystems with dams. This of course, had no effect whatsoever on the increasing rate of degradation of the planetary atmosphere, since the existence of "renewable energy" is wholly dependent on access to dangerous fossil fuels.

(The world's third largest energy disaster, after extreme global heating and deaths by air pollution, was the collapse of the Banquio dam system in China in 1975.)

On the bright side, China is building nuclear reactors at the highest rate seen since the United States built more than 100 reactors in the period between 1960 and 1985. China now has 58 operating nuclear reactors, all but two of which were built in this century, and 33 more under construction.

Obviously, to shut its coal plants, China would need to build reactors at an even higher pace.

Replacing coal with reliable clean energy - of which there is only one form, nuclear energy - would serve all of the human race well.

China is currently the world's largest emitter of carbon dioxide, 11.953 billion tons in 2023, more than Europe and the United States combined (10.931 billion tons).

Source: Figures for carbon emissions can be obtained and used for calculations from the data here:

Global Carbon Project at the link in data sets. The figures therein are reported as atomic carbon (Atomic Weight 12.011 g/mol) and I have corrected them for CO₂ (Molecular Weight = 44.0095 g/mol) by applying the correction factor from the ratio, 3.644.

[eppur_se_muova]

1. Good for them. China is the 800lb gorilla where GHGs are concerned. Gemany's "bold" decision will be forgotten in time.

... which will make it safe for politicians to reverse course.

Sad that a totalitarian gov't is doing the right thing while a democratic one is not.