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Journal of Environmental Accounting and Management
António Mendes Lopes (editor), Jiazhong Zhang(editor)
António Mendes Lopes (editor)

University of Porto, Portugal

Email: aml@fe.up.pt

Jiazhong Zhang (editor)

School of Energy and Power Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shaanxi Province 710049, China

Fax: +86 29 82668723 Email: jzzhang@mail.xjtu.edu.cn


Wastewater Management Policies for Nuclear Power Plants and its Implementation in China

Journal of Environmental Accounting and Management 4(4) (2016) 423--440 | DOI:10.5890/JEAM.2016.12.006

Xiaowen Ding$^{1}$,$^{2}$, Guihong Jiang$^{1}$, Baodeng Hou$^{3}$, Ying Xue$^{1}$

$^{1}$ Key Laboratory of Regional Energy and Environmental Systems Optimization, Ministry of Education, North China Electric Power University, Beijing102206, China

$^{2}$ Institute for Energy, Environment and Sustainable Communities, University of Regina, Saskatchewan S4S 7H9, Canada

$^{3}$ State Key Laboratory of Simulation and Regulation of Water Cycle in River Basin, China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, Beijing 100038, China

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Abstract

To deal with the global climate change and energy shortage, nuclear power has been widely used all over the world for its low carbon emission and economic cost. Nowadays, hundreds of nuclear power plants have been constructed in many countries. However, the operation of them discharged radioactive effluents and non-radioactive wastewater into nearby water bodies, which makes wastewater management policies for such plants crucial. The objective of this study is to summarize laws, regulations and technical standards of major countries with nuclear power plants, and advance wastewater management of nuclear power plants for China. This article summarized the laws, regulations and technical standards of wastewater management for the plants in major countries with nuclear power plants as well as International Atomic Energy Agency. The management in China, including management process, authorities, public participation as well as emergency system, was also proposed considering that plenty of coastal nuclear power plants had been built, and several inland ones were taken into account. Furthermore, case study was developed for Tianwan nuclear power plant which lied in East Coast of China and had been operated for ten years. The results may provide the managers of nuclear power plants around the world a policy reference and a decision support in the field of wastewater management.

Acknowledgments

Xiaowen Ding was responsible for the summary of the laws, regulations and technical standards on wastewater discharge of nuclear power plants throughout the world. Guihong Jiang proposed wastewater management system for nuclear power plants in China. Baodeng Hou analysed the laws, regulations and technical standards on wastewater discharge of nuclear power plants throughout the world. Ying Xue processed the data and drew the figures. This article isn’t under simultaneous consideration by any other publisher and haven’t been published elsewhere in substantially similar form. The authors declare no conflict of interest. This research work was funded by National Natural Science Foundation of China (51309097), the National key scientific and technological projects of the PRC (2014ZX07104-005) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of PRC. The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the programs and agencies.

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