China will delay the start of its first advanced nuclear reactor by another year to at least until the end of 2015 because of stricter safety checks, Reuters reported, citing state media. In an interview with Xinhua on Thursday, Guo Hongbo, a spokesman at China’s State Nuclear Power Technology Corp., blamed the delayed start of the third-generation AP1000 reactor on stringent safety inspections after Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011. “Safety and quality must come first,” Guo was quoted as saying. The AP1000 is based on designs by US-based Westinghouse and is the world’s most advanced reactor under construction.
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