Global nuclear power supply chains and the rise of China's nuclear industry

China has embarked on a massive expansion of nuclear power that may fundamentally change the global nuclear industry, for better or for worse. Some industry observers argue that the incumbent nuclear power companies are already losing their position of leadership to emergent Chinese actors. Others argue that the growing Chinese nuclear power industry creates more opportunities for all. In this thesis, I discuss Chinese nuclear power development in relation to the global nuclear power industry. I argue that understanding three aspects of the development of China's nuclear industry help understand the opportunities and threats that come with it: (1) common practices of the global nuclear industry in regard to technology transfer and localization (2) different global trends towards deverticalization and integration and (3) idiosyncrasies of the Chinese manufacturing ecosystem that affect global nuclear power supply chains. I argue that Chinese and foreign companies, and policy makers, need to comprehend these principles well as they inform corporate and national strategies, affecting the present and future competitiveness of nuclear power industry actors globally.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Engineering Systems Division.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2012

Author dc:creator

• Metzler, Florian

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Richard K. Lester and Edward S. Steinfeld.

• Engineering Systems Division.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/78494

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/78494