Is Serbia caught in infidelity? Fifteen months after the Moratorium, which prohibited construction for 40 years, was lifted nuclear reactors, the regime in Serbia changes partners. During the stay in Kini, namely, the person who holds the office of the President of the Republic, after a performance with robots and other cultural and artistic experiences, announced that he is negotiating with China on nuclear capacities, and that their offer is such that the reactor can be obtained incredibly "quickly and cheaply". This practice, fast and cheap, is not unusual in Chinese markets, but it is nevertheless in the nuclear business.
Since the summer of 2024, the Republic of Serbia has been intensively announcing cooperation with France, with which it has signed numerous nuclear agreements, abolished the Moratorium and conducted several studies. In the previous decade, Serbia made several nuclear agreements with Russia, which returned to the story in September 2025, and the United Arab Emirates was also mentioned as a partner. However, after the relationship with Russia, the engagement with the French nuclear industry, although very non-transparent, seemed very solid, and one could say in the same metaphor that the wedding is already planned. And then suddenly someone went to China to get a bride.
Is China really the solution? China's reach in nuclear energy is indisputable, at least in terms of the number of operating reactors, the number of construction sites and experiments with new reactors and fusion. According to official data from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), in the PRIS database that records nuclear conditions in the countries of the world, China has 60 operational nuclear reactors, while 35 reactors are currently under construction. The vast majority of this capacity is for pressurized water reactors (PWRs), including their domestic third-generation designs Hualong 1, as well as the CAP1000, but also solutions for pressurized heavy water reactors, as well as advanced gas and fast neutron reactor technologies.
A careful observer cannot fail to notice that there is still a certain fascination with the new power on the playing field and that these achievements of China are conveyed with too much enthusiasm (in some tabloids it seems as if the Politburo of the CCP is writing them). This is understandable, but the trouble is that the whole picture is rarely shown, which is still necessary to know. If you are a small country and now suddenly, after the Russians, the regime hesitates about the agreement with the French and announces offers from the Chinese, it is not a bad idea to look at what is hidden in the Chinese nuclear program.
THE FRENCH CONNECTION
Most of the countries that have reactors have their own crews on them and domestic regulators, but they mostly bought them from foreign suppliers who built them. However, it is very unusual for a nuclear reactor to be purchased in China out of all possible options. Although they are building reactors in their own backyard, the Chinese are not seen as a partner that exports them to others in the way that the French, Americans and Russians have been doing for decades. The main and most important partner, as the only market for Chinese reactors, is traditionally Pakistan. There, the Chinese state-owned company CNNC successfully built and put into operation several reactors in the Chashma and Karachi nuclear power plants, and a contract for the construction of one new unit was signed.
The thing is that until recently, the Chinese were primarily a market where others built reactors, and above all - France. The fact is that Chinese technology today is largely based on French experience. China's rise in the nuclear sphere is directly related to the successful migration and modification of French technology starting in the 20s. China imported a second-generation French reactor that was exported under the acronym M310. It is about a 900 MW reactor that was raised to about 1000 MW in China, and which was characterized by three loops, i.e. three separate cooling systems, which made it much safer than the competition at the time and solved the safety challenges after the incident at the Three Mile Island power plant in the USA.
For the purpose of building the Chinese Daya Bay power plant, the Chinese bought the M310 through official technology transfer agreements with the companies Framatome and EDF, which meant that the Chinese took over the technology, and, traditionally prone to copying, they also learned from the French how to build this type of reactor themselves. Through the Ling Ao project, Chinese institutes and companies gradually localized the production of key components and modified the French design. The "Chinese migration" of the M310 model, as it is euphemistically called, was the technical springboard for the development of the standard Chinese reactor CPR-1000, which later grew into the third-generation Chinese brand, Hualong 1.
Although they took over the technology, China's cooperation with France never really stopped. The French also built two extremely advanced European pressurized water reactors (EPR) in China at the Taishan nuclear power plant, where the French EDF still has a 30 percent ownership stake through a joint venture with the Chinese China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN). Taking that into account, the reader is probably asking himself why Serbia would not then buy original reactors from the French themselves, and not Chinese copies, given that it already has a number of nuclear agreements with France.
photo: Xinhua...and a control room in one of the nuclear power plants
AMERICAN SANCTIONS
Perhaps you did not know, but the Chinese civilian nuclear program was not only copied from the French, but is currently under American sanctions, no less than the NIS in Serbia. In those circumstances, many things in this business are simply impossible to do with the Chinese. Namely, in August 2019, the United States of America, through the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) of the Ministry of Commerce, put the company CGN and its subsidiaries on the so-called "black list". The decision follows accusations that CGN has been trying to acquire advanced US nuclear technology for years. Sanctions have been imposed on all new export licenses to China, and China's nuclear program is suspected of copying and stealing technologies, which are not baseless accusations.
Namely, back in 2014, the American federal services caught five Chinese with the accusation that they used espionage to obtain plans for American reactors in order for the Chinese to copy them. The five military hackers are all Chinese People's Liberation Army officers from PLA Unit 61398. The US Department of Justice subsequently indicted them for economic cyber-espionage, accusing the Chinese hackers of breaking into Westinghouse's computer networks while it was negotiating the construction of a reactor in China. The Chinese have stolen thousands of sensitive files, technical specifications and detailed design solutions for the tubes and components of the famous US AP1000 reactor.
It is a business that has gone wrong on all levels. After the French, the Americans entered nuclear cooperation at the beginning of the 21st century, but they regretted it bitterly. Namely, the famous American company Westinghouse signed a very lucrative contract for the construction of the AP1000 reactor in China. The contract did not include the transfer of technology, as in the French case, but there were large penalties for delay. The project, however, was delayed on many levels and the losses turned into billions, only to become so huge in 2017 that after more than a century of business, the Westinghouse company experienced a financial collapse and declared bankruptcy due to delays in the AP1000 projects.
CHINESE SYNDROME
Not many nuclear incidents have been recorded in China, at least not publicly. Although others did not really run to speak publicly about accidents, the unpleasant practice of covering up incidents, such as the one at the Taishan power plant, by increasing the limits of permissible radiation concentrations is often reported. It is about the case from June 2021, when the public learned about the problem in reactor 1 of the Taishan nuclear power plant, after the co-owner French company Framatome approached the US government asking for permission to share technical data in order to solve the "imminent radiological threat".
Another problem the Chinese are facing is related to fuel. The expansion of the nuclear program has created a need for large imports of raw materials, and China's main supply partner is the Russian Federation. Namely, Rosatom, through its subsidiary TVEL, supplies China with record amounts of enriched uranium. This trade has especially strengthened after 2024 due to geopolitical realignments in the energy market. Given these circumstances and the fact that a Chinese reactor means Russian fuel, the question is the same as with France - why wouldn't Serbia also buy a reactor from Russia, as a country with 80 years of experience and concluded agreements?
Of course, the question with the regime in Serbia is always whether it is serious about anything. A much longer-term question is whether nuclear reactors are really the solution for the future? In a world that is forced to abandon fossil fuels due to climate change, and Serbia is crucially dependent on them today, it is difficult to imagine any other source that can replace coal so stably, reliably and with such power. Security threat aside, nuclear reactors really don't affect climate change and could be the solution to the much-needed reduction in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. However, the cost of building a modern nuclear reactor of around 1000 MW is usually estimated at around 5 to 10 billion euros in our time.
For almost four decades, Serbia managed this risk in a brutal way - a few years after Chernobyl, from 1989 until 2025, it completely banned the construction of reactors. After the repeal of the Law on the Prohibition of the Construction of Nuclear Reactors, she is now behaving as if she is ready for a nuclear marriage, but as with any courtship, all kinds of questions are open - we see how the search for a bridegroom is going, but after the urgent question of how to strengthen domestic expertise after four decades, the most important thing is the will of the citizens of Serbia, who should decide on it at the referendum. Do the citizens even want any kind of nuclear reactor on the territory of Serbia, be it Chinese, Russian or French?
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