Guangdong Jiangmen nuclear fuel project dismounted in March, real estate recovered, Country Garden employees marched.

On July 4, 2013, after Jiangmen City, Guangdong Province publicized the nuclear fuel project of Longwan Industrial Park of CNNC, various voices of opposition appeared on local networks, forums and Weibo. On the morning of July 14th, some people in Jiangmen gathered at the gate of Jiangmen Municipal Committee and Municipal Government to express their demands, hoping that the local government would cancel the "nuclear-related" project, which eventually led to the "stillbirth" of the project.

According to the "First Financial Daily" report, more than three months after the nuclear fuel processing plant of the Longwan Industrial Park project of CNNC was dismounted, the local real estate recovered its vitality, and local real estate developers and other enterprises were the main force of this opposition. "Many employees of Country Garden also took to the streets."

Earlier, the national business daily reporter found that the "opponents" who made the most noise at the beginning were not the local ordinary people, but the pressure in the surrounding areas was the core force of "public opinion", which was also confirmed by the above-mentioned officials. A local people also said that it is not they who express their demands to the government, but most of them are entrepreneurs. They are worried that after the completion of the project, the evacuation of the people will make the enterprise unable to operate and the houses built by real estate developers will not be sold.

Jiangmen nuclear fuel project has triggered public protests.

According to China Business News, some residents in Heshan City, Jiangmen City said that they can probably rest assured now. But some thorny issues have also been left behind. This newspaper learned in an interview with Zhishan Town, Heshan City, where the project is located, that this project with a total land area of more than 229 hectares (3,435 mu) has already completed land acquisition and paid some compensation to local residents.

Now, some farmland occupied by the project planning has been deserted, and the villagers are waiting for the news of whether to move to other places. A villager said that the sudden cancellation of the project made them feel at a loss. An official of Heshan municipal government, who asked not to be named, told this newspaper that these problems are indeed very difficult and "the government is also rethinking".

Real estate began to come back to life

At noon on September 17th, the motorcycle that our reporter took set off from Zhishan bus station, covered with continuous forests and green fields. About ten minutes later, we arrived at the place called the nuclear fuel processing plant by the locals. This is a place surrounded by mountains on three sides. In the arms of the mountains, there are some farms where all kinds of vegetables and fruits are planted and all kinds of poultry are raised.

If the Longwan Industrial Park project of CNNC can progress according to the original plan, then it must be a scene of roaring machines and full of enthusiasm. But now the situation is just the opposite, just like a remote mountain area, where people are rare and quiet only with the sound of the wind.

Under the mild sunshine, only one farmer is busy in the vast field, and there are three or two anglers by the stream. In addition, there is the whirring sound of motorcycles.

"This is their weather launch pad." Moto continued to move forward. When passing an iron frame high into the sky, the driver explained to this newspaper: "This is the only visible thing left by the nuclear fuel processing plant."

The driver said that since the cancellation of the project, the figure of the person who took care of the weather launch pad has been rare. But he refused to drive the motorcycle closer to the weather launch pad. "There may be someone inside." He said uneasily, "We are not sure whether this project will be revived."

Although the government has repeatedly stressed that the project has been permanently cancelled, some local residents share the same concerns as the driver of Mozambique.

At present, there is no indication that these citizens’ worries will come true. The probability that they think the project may "revive" is almost zero. From the government of Zhishan Town to the government of Heshan City, there is no news related to the project on the publicity column of the office building, as if nothing had ever happened.

Now, local real estate has also begun to revive. "You can definitely rest assured that there will be no nuclear radiation here, absolutely not."In the sales office of a high-end residential area called "Jianmeiyuan" in Heshan City, the sales staff were so eager to appease the spectators from afar. "The attitude of the government has been very clear, and the nuclear fuel processing plant project has no possibility of recovery."

Local real estate developers told this newspaper that since the beginning of this year, affected by the project, they have sold a lot fewer houses than before. "30% to 40% less." A salesperson said, "Even more." But she said that the cancellation of the project made them see a new turn for the better.

Different from other nearby cities, although Heshan people are worried about the project itself, the voice of opposition to the project is relatively small. This is probably due to the high compensation policy formulated by the local government. Villagers involved in land acquisition will collectively move to new houses in the town, and each household will receive more than 100,000 yuan in compensation.

"The compensation for my house is 150,000 yuan, and now I have got 50,000 yuan." A villager in Lianzhu Village, Zhishan Town told this newspaper that her family has requisitioned nearly 2 mu of farmland, and the compensation for each mu is 30,000 yuan.

A related material obtained by the newspaper from the Heshan Municipal Government shows that, in view of the sensitivity of the project, the public’s acceptance of the project and the land acquisition and demolition work are very important for Heshan.

In the first five months of this year, Heshan has invested 144 million yuan to support the construction of nuclear projects, including about 140 million yuan for compensation for land acquisition and demolition, another 2.53 million yuan for basic old-age insurance for landless farmers, and about 1.04 million yuan for pre-assessment expenses such as surveying and mapping and geological exploration.

Compared with other villages in Jishan Town, Lianzhu Village is the closest to the project, and it is the "biggest beneficiary of the project", so it is envied by other local villagers. According to the plan before the cancellation of the project, about 30 villagers in Lianzhu Village will move out of here. But now, the villager told this newspaper that she didn’t know what to do and could only wait for the "notice from the government".

Successive governments in Guangdong want to establish nuclear fuel processing plants.

On the morning of July 13th, on the day when the publicity period of social stability risk assessment (hereinafter referred to as "stable assessment") was coming to an end, the Heshan Municipal Government said that it would "listen to public opinion" and announced that it would abandon the project.

The project focuses on the construction of uranium purification and transformation, uranium enrichment, nuclear fuel component manufacturing and other facilities, and builds a "one-stop" nuclear fuel processing industrial chain and nuclear fuel processing industrial cluster. After completion, its production capacity can meet 50% of the fuel demand planned for nuclear power development in 2020. However, since the project was publicized on July 4, it has aroused people’s opposition.

"China Business News" said that from the beginning to the end, the project has always been branded with the trace of "being quick and obedient". Earlier this year, the official of Heshan City said: "The city will push forward the construction of the industrial park project, which will bring new development opportunities for the industrial transformation and upgrading of Heshan City." The local leaders demanded that the project must be "fast" so that it can start construction before the end of the year.

It takes less than one year from obtaining the project to canceling it. In February last year, China National Nuclear Corporation began to build a nuclear fuel plant in the country. At that time, the group selected sites for projects in coastal provinces and cities such as Jiangsu, Fujian, Guangdong and Tianjin. In October 2012, after all kinds of efforts, Heshan won the favor of China National Nuclear Corporation, and stood out among nearly 40 alternative sites that had been surveyed and quantitatively evaluated. This project was once included in the key projects of Guangdong Province in 2013.

According to official sources in Guangdong, in order to solve the energy crisis in Guangdong during the Twelfth Five-Year Plan period, the province is expected to invest about 70 billion yuan in nuclear power construction. An insider of a nuclear power group once told this newspaper that Guangdong is a big nuclear power province, and successive governments want to establish a nuclear fuel processing plant to form a complete nuclear energy industrial chain, which is also an opportunity for Guangdong’s industrial upgrading.

Since all the nuclear power units under construction and operation in China are located in coastal areas, the two processing plants providing nuclear fuel are far away in Baotou, Inner Mongolia and Yibin, Sichuan. "This increases the transportation cost of fuel." Industry insiders told this newspaper that with 28 nuclear power units under construction in China, the demand for nuclear fuel will be more urgent in the future.

Therefore, the main party and government officials in Guangdong Province also clearly expressed their "active support" before Heshan signed a formal contract with CNNC. The project finally settled in Heshan, which was actively sought after.

A person from the government of Heshan City told this newspaper: "Through the visit, Heshan City realized that this is a safe and high-quality big project, so our city and China National Nuclear Corporation have the same goal in the process of promoting the project, and both sides have specially formed a working group to strengthen coordination and communication."

Heshan municipal government officials also said that the project is not only safe, but also can bring great contributions to the local economy. The total investment of the project is about 40 billion yuan, which involves clean energy production, equipment, supporting and other related industries. The local government estimates that after the completion of such an industrial park, two Heshan will be rebuilt in terms of industrial output value and tax revenue.

Real estate developers and other enterprises are the main force against it.

After the project "stable evaluation" was terminated due to the opposition of a large number of people around, the Heshan Municipal Government said in reflection that the main reason was that it did not understand the policy deeply.

"Stable evaluation is a new thing, and the stable evaluation of nuclear-related projects is the first time in Guangdong Province, and it may be the first case in China." The official of Heshan Municipal Government, who did not want to be named, told this newspaper, "The government attaches great importance to many procedures on how to do a good job in the stable evaluation of this project. When actually carrying out the work, there are neither specific work guidelines nor cases for reference. Therefore, the foundation and atmosphere of the stable evaluation work are mostly only considered in the local scope of Heshan City."

The Heshan Municipal Government told this newspaper that anti-PX events have occurred in many places across the country in recent years, but they have not learned the lessons of PX events well. For this nuclear-related project, the government emphasized the technical and safety of the project, but underestimated the public’s sensitivity to the project, especially the public’s concern about nuclear safety after the Fukushima nuclear power accident in Japan.

As for the possible ending like PX project after publicity, the Heshan Municipal Government admits that they have not fully considered and improved the countermeasures. After the fermentation of this public opinion incident, there appeared the opposition voice of the people dozens or even hundreds of kilometers away, which showed that the public "turned pale at the smell of the nuclear".

The groups opposed to the project are more from Foshan, Kaiping, Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Macao near Heshan. Local real estate developers and other enterprises are the main force of this opposition. "Many employees of Country Garden also took to the streets." The local villagers said, "Country Garden Villa is just where the project lifts its legs."

The above-mentioned officials told this reporter that they did not expect that the project was actually opposed from outside.

The Heshan municipal government admits that they have shortcomings in predicting online public opinion. Before the publicity, there was a certain expectation of the opposition voice that the project might receive, but the "geometric" propagation speed and situation of online public opinion were not fully estimated, and the information energy transmitted through the network was underestimated. The fact that the countermeasures taken later could not work at all also proved this point.

The Heshan Municipal Government stated that when introducing public sensitive large-scale projects in the future, we should first do a good job in information disclosure, protect the public’s right to know, and change the project decision-making mode from "decision — Announce — The traditional form of "defense" has changed into "cognition, participation and cooperation".

In addition, the Heshan municipal government said that similar projects should grasp their risk key points and work difficulties. For example, in key links such as stable evaluation, environmental assessment, safety evaluation, and interest demands for land acquisition and demolition, the factors that affect the project landing are carefully evaluated and analyzed, and the atmosphere and foundation of the project landing are tested through various methods and forms, which are targeted and solved step by step, and time is exchanged for space, so as to resolve contradictions as soon as possible and avoid the escalation of the situation.

It is particularly important to establish a compensation mechanism for the interests of large projects, so that stakeholders can benefit, and to concretize the benefits that local people, enterprises and other stakeholders can obtain.

"For real estate developers like Country Garden, the launch of nuclear-related projects will inevitably have an impact on them. If there is no corresponding compensation, they will definitely oppose it." The official said, "But local governments can’t afford the cost of compensation."

The above-mentioned insiders analyzed to this newspaper that although the nuclear fuel processing plant is safer and more reliable than nuclear power plants, this storm has made it more difficult for CNNC to choose a site in the future. "People will compete to imitate how to resist projects that look unfriendly at all."