China: Safety licensing procedure for nuclear power plants, research reactors and fuel cycle facilities (MEE Order No. 8, 2019)
China's 2019 safety licensing procedure rule sets how operators apply to the National Nuclear Safety Administration for a site selection review opinion and for construction, operation and decommissioning licences. It allows a combined siting and construction application for some research reactors and for factory-built floating or mobile nuclear power units on an already approved site. It is a procedure rule, not a project permission.
- Category
- Laws, rules and executive directives
- Status
- In effect
- Instrument
- final rule · 核动力厂、研究堆、核燃料循环设施安全许可程序规定, 生态环境部令第8号 (MEE Order No. 8); adopted 11 July 2019; published 26 August 2019; in force 1 October 2019
- Issued by
- Ministry of Ecology and Environment (生态环境部); applications are decided by the National Nuclear Safety Administration (国家核安全局)
- Jurisdiction
- China
- Affects
- Siting, National reactor licensing
- In effect from
- 1 Oct 2019 · actual · day
- Expiry or completion
- None recorded
- Operative text
- Ministry of Ecology and Environment: 核动力厂、研究堆、核燃料循环设施安全许可程序规定 (MEE Order No. 8) (MEE Order No. 8 as published on the MEE government information page)
- Record reviewed · next review
- 2026-10-18 · 2027-04-18 (dates our review of this record; not a statement of the measure's present legal effect)
Legal and geographic scope
Ministerial rule made under the Nuclear Safety Law, the Administrative Licensing Law and the civil nuclear facility safety regulations. It governs the procedure for safety licences for siting, construction, operation and decommissioning of civil nuclear power plants (including nuclear heat-and-power and heating plants), research reactors and fuel cycle facilities in China's territory and other sea areas under its jurisdiction, and for transfer, change of operator and relocation (Articles 2-4). Article 6 requires the operator to complete the site safety evaluation and submit a site selection review application and a siting safety analysis report to NNSA to obtain a site selection review opinion. Article 7 allows construction of safety-important structures or pouring of basemat concrete only after a construction licence (valid up to ten years). Article 8 allows a combined siting and construction application, with the site opinion issued together with the construction licence, for listed cases including factory-built or factory-assembled floating or mobile nuclear power units whose first fuel loading and commissioning are completed in the factory, where NNSA has already approved the safety evaluation of the site.
Not approved or still pending
Technical siting criteria in NNSA safety regulations and standards were not reviewed, and later amendments to this rule were not checked. The combined-application route depends on a prior NNSA approval of the site; no floating or mobile unit is identified by the rule.
Dated lifecycle
- 26 Aug 2019 · actual · day · Issued — Adopted by the ministry meeting on 11 July 2019 and promulgated on 26 August 2019. (Ministry of Ecology and Environment: 核动力厂、研究堆、核燃料循环设施安全许可程序规定 (MEE Order No. 8))
- 1 Oct 2019 · actual · day · Took effect (Ministry of Ecology and Environment: 核动力厂、研究堆、核燃料循环设施安全许可程序规定 (MEE Order No. 8))
Definitions in this instrument
- 核动力厂 (nuclear power plant, as used in this rule) (Article 3(1)): Nuclear power plants, nuclear heat-and-power plants, nuclear steam-supply and heating plants and similar nuclear power plants and units.
Legal definition used by this instrument only; SMRMap's inclusion rule for SMRs is separate and unchanged.
Related instruments
Projects or designs named by the source
- None. Location in this jurisdiction does not make a project eligible for, or approved under, this measure.
Sources
- Ministry of Ecology and Environment: 核动力厂、研究堆、核燃料循环设施安全许可程序规定 (MEE Order No. 8) (regulator_primary, dated 26 Aug 2019, accessed 2026-10-18)