COLD WAR 2.0 SINOPHOBIA
Satellite images show China working on nuclear reactor for new warship
Numerically, China's navy is already the worlds largest and has been rapidly modernising.
China has built a land-based prototype nuclear reactor for a large warship, according to analysis of satellite imagery and Chinese government documents.
The images are the clearest sign yet that Beijing is advancing towards producing its first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.
Beijing already has the world's largest navy in terms of numbers, and has been rapidly modernising its fleet. Adding nuclear-powered carriers would be a major first step in realising China's ambitions for a global naval that could challenge the US.
“Nuclear-powered carriers would place China in the exclusive ranks of first-class naval powers, a group currently limited to the United States and France,” Tong Zhao, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said.
Domestically, such a development would symbolise national prestige and fuel "domestic nationalism."
The discovery was unearthed by researchers at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in California as they investigated a mountain site outside the city of Leshan in southwest China.
Initially suspecting China was building a reactor to produce plutonium or tritium for weapons, they concluded Beijing was focusing its efforts on a prototype reactor for a large warship.
The reactor, which documents indicate will soon be fully operational, is housed in a new facility known as Base 909 which houses six other reactors that are either operational, decommissioned or under construction.
The site is under the control of the Nuclear Power Institute of China, a subsidiary of the China National Nuclear Corporation, which is tasked with reactor engineering research and testing.
Contracts for steam generators and turbine pumps indicate the project involves a pressurised water reactor with a secondary circuit — a profile that is consistent with naval propulsion reactors, the researchers say.
“Nuclear Power Development Project most certainly refers to a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier development effort,” researchers wrote in a detailed 19-page report.
The People's Liberation Army Navy is already the world's largest with over 370 ships and submarines.
However, it still lags behind the US Navy in some respects — with the Washington's navy having eleven nuclear powered carriers allowing it to keep strike groups deployed around the world at all times.
The Pentagon has become increasingly concerned about China's rapid modernisation of its fleet, saying that its efforts align with China's "growing emphasis on the maritime domain and increasing demands."
Neither China’s Defence Ministry nor Foreign Affairs Ministry responded to requests for comment.
China has built ‘prototype’ nuclear reactor for carrier
China has built a land-based prototype nuclear reactor for a large surface warship, in the clearest sign yet Beijing is advancing toward producing the nation’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, according to a new analysis of satellite imagery and Chinese government documents provided to The Associated Press.
There have long been rumors that China is planning to build a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, but the research by the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in California is the first to confirm it is working on a nuclear-powered propulsion system for a carrier-sized surface warship.
A photo released by Xinhua news agency shows China’s third conventionally powered aircraft carrier, the Fujian, in a maiden sea trial on May 7.
Photo: AP
Why is China’s pursuit of nuclear-powered carriers significant?
China’s navy is already the world’s largest numerically, and it has been rapidly modernizing. Adding nuclear-powered carriers to its fleet would be a major step in realizing its ambitions for a true “blue-water” force capable of operating around the globe in a growing challenge to the US.
Nuclear carriers take longer to build than conventional carriers, but once in operation they are able to stay at sea for much longer because they do not need to refuel, and there is more room on board for fuel and weapons for aircraft, thus extending their capabilities. They are also able to produce more power to run advanced systems.
Right now, only the US and France have nuclear-powered carriers. The US has 11 in total, which allows it to keep multiple strike groups deployed around the world at all times, including in the Indo-Pacific. However, the Pentagon is growingly increasingly concerned about China’s rapid modernization of its fleet, including the design and construction of new carriers.
China has three carriers, including the new Type 003 Fujian, which was the first both designed and built by China. It has said work is under way on a fourth, but it has not announced whether that would be nuclear or conventionally powered.
The modernization aligns with China’s “growing emphasis on the maritime domain and increasing demands” for its navy “to operate at greater distances from mainland China,” the US Department of Defense said in its most recent report to Congress on China’s military.
How did researchers conclude China has built a prototype reactor for a carrier?
Middlebury researchers were initially investigating a mountain site outside the city of Leshan in the southwest Chinese province of Sichuan over suspicions that China was building a reactor to produce plutonium or tritium for weapons. Instead, they said they determined that China was building a prototype reactor for a large warship.
The conclusion was based on a wide variety of sources, including satellite images, project tenders, personnel files and environmental impact studies.
The reactor is housed in a new facility built at the site known as Base 909, which is under the control of the Nuclear Power Institute of China.
Documents indicating that China’s 701 Institute, which is responsible for aircraft carrier development, procured reactor equipment “intended for installation on a large surface warship,” as well as the project’s “national defense designation” helped lead to the conclusion the sizeable reactor is a prototype for a next-generation aircraft carrier.
What does China say?
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) has tasked defense officials with building a “first-class” navy and becoming a maritime power as part of his blueprint for the country’s great rejuvenation.
China’s most recent white paper on national defense, dated 2019, said the Chinese navy was adjusting to strategic requirements by “speeding up the transition of its tasks from defense on the near seas to protection missions on the far seas.”
Sea trials had not even started for the new Fujian aircraft carrier in March when Yuan Huazhi (袁華智), political commissar for China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy, confirmed the construction of a fourth carrier.
Asked if it would be nuclear-powered, he said at the time that would “soon be announced,” but so far it has not been.
Neither the Chinese defense ministry nor its foreign ministry responded to requests for comment.
Even if the carrier that has been started is likely to another conventionally powered Type 003 ship, experts say Chinese shipyards have the capability to work on more than one carrier at a time, and that they could produce a new nuclear-powered vessel concurrently.
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