Upgraded nuclear safety supervision protects high-quality development of nuclear power

A national examination recruitment brochure contains the latest signals of institutional changes.

Recently, the National Civil Service Bureau's website released the "Recruitment Guide for Civil Servants Recruited by Central Agencies and Their Directly Affiliated Agencies for the 2027 Examination." In the job recruitment information released by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, two new departments, the Nuclear Power Construction Safety Supervision Department and the Nuclear Power Operation Safety Supervision Department, are listed.

This means that the nuclear safety regulatory structure of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (National Nuclear Safety Administration) has completed an important upgrade.

Why are these two new departments established? The answer lies in an ever-increasing curve.

In August 2026, Dong Baotong, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and Director of the National Nuclear Safety Administration, gave a set of key data at a press conference of the State Council Information Office: my country has 65 nuclear power units that have obtained operating licenses, and will be close to 100 units by 2030. By then, the number of operating units will rank first in the world.

This is a leap forward. In just a few years, the number of nuclear power units with operating licenses in China is expected to increase by more than 50%.

The number of units has increased significantly, and the task of ensuring a high level of nuclear safety will become even more arduous.

When the International Atomic Energy Agency came to China to carry out the Integrated Review of Nuclear and Radiation Safety Regulation (IRRS) in 2025, Foy, the leader of the assessment team and CEO and chief inspector of the British Nuclear Safety Regulatory Office, said, "In the context of the rapid development of China's nuclear power industry, there will be a need to significantly expand the scale of regulatory personnel in the next few years."

Sanlihe noticed that in this year’s national examination recruitment, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment recruited a total of 13 people, of which the Nuclear Power Construction Safety Supervision Department and the Nuclear Power Operation Safety Supervision Department recruited a total of 6 people, nearly half of the total number of recruitments by the agency.

So why should nuclear power construction and operation safety be regulated separately? This is a specialized division of labor based on the life cycle stages of nuclear facilities.

Because "guaranteeing the safe operation of hundreds of units for nearly a century" and "ensuring the construction quality during the peak period of large-scale nuclear power construction" are becoming major issues.

These two aspects point to completely different supervisory capability requirements: the construction phase focuses on source control of construction quality and equipment manufacturing; the operation phase emphasizes daily supervision, experience feedback and safety culture cultivation.

Currently, quality control during the peak period of large-scale construction has become a major challenge facing China’s nuclear power industry.

In Shandong, Haiyang Nuclear Power Base plans to build six million-kilowatt nuclear power units and one integrated small reactor. Units 3 and 4 of the second phase of the project are in the critical stage of commissioning and production. In Jiangsu, Unit 7 of the Tianwan Nuclear Power Base completed its first grid connection in October this year and is expected to be put into operation within the year. Unit 8 is scheduled to complete commercial operation in 2027. In Guangdong, Taipingling Nuclear Power Plant plans to build six "Hualong One" third-generation nuclear power technology units with independent intellectual property rights, and the construction of the second phase of the project is in full swing.

The China Nuclear Energy Industry Association pointed out that with the increase in the number of nuclear power construction units in my country, all nuclear power groups are jointly facing new problems and challenges such as resource allocation for group plants and group reactor construction management, rapid transplantation of mature systems, and new requirements for government regulatory licensing.

The Nuclear Power Safety Supervision Department oversees the entire life cycle, and it is inevitable to focus on one thing and lose another. The establishment of two departments is precisely to accurately match the regulatory power to every key link.

China is moving from a nuclear power power to a nuclear power power, but nuclear power development has never been just a competition of technology and scale. Public trust in nuclear safety is a prerequisite for the sustainable development of nuclear power, and the establishment of trust is inseparable from effective supervision.

The appearance of the two new departments is not only an organizational adjustment, but also sends a clear signal to the outside world: China has always regarded ensuring nuclear safety as an important national responsibility, ensuring safety throughout the chain, and no weak links can appear anywhere.