China to build nuclear plant in polluted Hebei province

China aims to build a nuclear reactor in the heavily polluted province of Hebei, which surrounds the capital Beijing, in a bid to cut smog and promote cleaner energy, the head of the country's nuclear agency said on Friday. Hebei is home to seven of China's ten smoggiest cities. Under pressure to use cleaner energy sources, the province has already pledged to cut its consumption of polluting coal by 40 million tonnes over 2013-2017.
"For the integrated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, we are currently planning to build a nuclear plant on the Hebei coast," Xu Dazhe, chairman of the China Atomic Energy Authority, said at the launch of a China-US nuclear safety research facility on the outskirts of Beijing.