Originally Posted by 92saturnsl2
How long before China steals the secrets and builds these things themselves?
That's pretty much their MO. After their JV CANDU venture they are now manufacturing their own CANDU-esque reactor.
It's a brilliant business model really. While much of the world shuns the Nuclear industry, burying it in red tape and regulation (look at Vogtle) and spins its wheels goofing around with wind and solar, China provides a receptive market with the capital, manpower and process to get plants built on-time and on budget; a budget which is a fraction of what it costs to build them elsewhere.
China will then, as they have, develop their own indigenous reactor families, shamelessly based on these joint ventures and export them. This will result in them dominating the nuclear industry by providing modular reactors of all sizes that can be shipped anywhere and installed.
It's worked extremely well for their solar industry, making them the dominant player, and they are probably the largest manufacturer of wind turbine components. They play the entire market with the goal of complete domination of all industries.