{"id":4389,"date":"2016-05-18T19:46:47","date_gmt":"2016-05-18T19:46:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/?p=4389"},"modified":"2016-05-18T19:46:47","modified_gmt":"2016-05-18T19:46:47","slug":"china-has-plans-to-install-nuclear-power-plants-in-its-fake-islands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/?p=4389","title":{"rendered":"China has plans to install Nuclear Power Plants in its Fake Islands"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>China\u2019s quest to fence off a big chunk of the South China Sea may have just gotten another powerful boost: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2016\/04\/23\/world\/asia\/china-nuclear-power-south-china-sea.html?smid=tw-share&amp;_r=0\" target=\"_blank\">plans<\/a> for a fleet of floating nuclear power plants that could provide huge amounts of electricity for the far-flung atolls and islets.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>While floating nuclear power plants are hardly a novel idea, their use in the South China Sea \u2014 a typhoon-wracked hotbed of territorial disputes and increasing military rivalries \u2014 would be worrisome both for environmental and security reasons.<\/p>\n<p>Chinese state media <a href=\"http:\/\/www.chinadaily.com.cn\/cndy\/2016-04\/22\/content_24744228.htm\" target=\"_blank\">said<\/a> that Beijing plans to build as many as 20 floating nuclear power plants to supply power to remote locations. That could include offshore oil drilling rigs and the sparsely inhabited islands that China has spent the past two years building up and steadily turning into military outposts.<\/p>\n<p>But China\u2019s nuclear plans cause concern for both security analysts and some nuclear power experts. Many Chinese initiatives, from <a href=\"http:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/2015\/02\/12\/china-sri-lanka-and-the-maritime-great-game-silk-road-xi-port\/\" target=\"_blank\">port deals<\/a> in the Indian Ocean to its frantic building in the South China Sea, ostensibly serve civilian purposes but can also mask military buildups.<\/p>\n<p>In recent years, Beijing has turned tiny atolls into artificial islands, replete with military-grade airfields and, in <a href=\"http:\/\/amti.csis.org\/another-piece-of-the-puzzle\/\" target=\"_blank\">some cases<\/a>,\u00a0with advanced air-defence <a href=\"http:\/\/thediplomat.com\/2016\/03\/cuarteron-reefs-new-radar-the-china-coast-guards-best-new-toy\/\" target=\"_blank\">radars<\/a>. Adding a big new source of power could make those military systems a lot more powerful, potentially giving China the ability to create a no-go zone in the air and waters around its fake islands. That\u2019s especially worrisome since the United States is trying <a href=\"http:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/2016\/02\/17\/crunch-time-for-washington-and-beijing-in-the-south-china-sea\/\" target=\"_blank\">to ensure<\/a> free and open access to the waters in the South China Sea, one of the world\u2019s busiest and most important trade thoroughfares. ? <strong>(Associated Press)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>China\u2019s quest to fence off a big chunk of the South China Sea may have just gotten another powerful boost: plans for a fleet of floating nuclear power plants that could provide huge amounts of electricity for the far-flung atolls and islets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,70],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4389"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4389\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}