Satellite Images And Documents Indicate China Working On Nuclear Propulsion For New Aircraft Carrier

China has built a land-based proto nuclear reactor for a large surface warship, in clearest sign yet Beijing is vancing toward producing its first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, according to a new analysis of satellite imry and Chinese government documents provided to Associated Press.
China's navy is alrey world's largest numerically, and it has been rapidly modernizing. ding nuclear-powered carriers to its fleet would be a major step in realizing its ambitions for a true "blue-water" force capable of operating in seas far from China in a growing global challenge to United States.

"Nuclear-powered carriers would place China in exclusive ranks of first-class naval powers, a group currently limited to United States and France," said Tong Zhao, a senior fellow at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C. "For China's leership, such a development would symbolize national prestige, fueling domestic nationalism and elevating country's global im as a leing power."
Researchers at Middlebury Institute of International Studies in California said y me finding while investigating a mountain site outside city of Leshan in southwest Chinese province of Sichuan, where y suspected China was building a reactor to produce plutonium or tritium for weapons.

Inste y concluded that China was building a proto reactor for a large warship. project at Leshan is dubbed Longwei, or Dragon Might, Project and is also referred to as Nuclear Power Development Project in documents.
Neir China's Defense Ministry r Foreign Affairs Ministry responded to requests for comment.

Satellite ims and public documents helped identify likely carrier project

re have long been rumors that China is planning to build a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, but research by Middlebury team is first to confirm that China is working on a nuclear-powered propulsion system for a carrier-sized surface warship.

" reactor proto at Leshan is first solid evidence that China is, in fact, developing a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier," said Jeffrey Lewis, a professor at Middlebury and one of researchers on project. "Operating a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier is an exclusive club, one that China looks set to join."

Drawing on satellite ims and public documents including project tenders, personnel files, environmental impact studies — and even a citizen's complaint about isy construction and excessive dust — y concluded a proto reactor for naval propulsion was being built in mountains of Mucheng township, some 70 miles (112 kilometers) southwest of Sichuan's provincial capital Chengdu.

reactor, which procurement documents indicate will soon be operational, is housed in a new facility built at site kwn as Base 909, which houses six or reactors that are operational, decommissioned or under construction, according to analysis. site is under control of Nuclear Power Institute of China, a subsidiary of China National Nuclear Corporation, which is tasked with reactor engineering research and testing.

Documents indicating that China's 701 Institute, formally kwn as China Ship Research and Design Center, which is responsible for aircraft carrier development, procured reactor equipment "intended for installation on a large surface warship" under Nuclear Power Development Project as well as project's "national defense designation" helped le to conclusion sizable reactor is a proto for a next-generation aircraft carrier.
Satellite ms from 2020 to 2023 have shown demolition of homes and construction of water intake infrastructure connected to reactor site. Contracts for steam generators and turbine pumps indicate project involves a pressurized water reactor with a secondary circuit — a profile that is consistent with naval propulsion reactors, researchers say.

An environmental impact report calls Longwei Project a "national defense-related construction project" that is classified "secret."
"Unless China is developing nuclear-powered cruisers, which were pursued only by United States and Soviet Union during Cold War, n Nuclear Power Development Project most certainly refers to a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier development effort," researchers wrote in a detailed 19-p report on ir findings shared exclusively with AP.

Jamie Withorne, an analyst at Oslo Nuclear Project who was t involved in research and reviewed findings, said Middlebury's team me a "convincing argument."
"From identifying reports, co-location with or naval reactor facilities, and correlating construction activity, I think it can be said that it is likely Longwei Project is housed at Base 909, and it could potentially be located at identified building," she said.

research does t, however, provide clues as to when a Chinese nuclear-powered carrier could be built and become operational, she said.
Sarah Lerman, a senior analyst with Open Nuclear Network, a program of U.S.-based NGO PAX sapiens foundation, said findings were "carefully conducted and thoroughly researched."
"Given evidence presented here, I see a compelling case me that China seems to be working towards building a nuclear propulsion system for its naval surface ships (likely aircraft carriers) at this location," said Lerman, who is based in Vienna and was t involved in Middlebury's research.

Pursuit of a nuclear-powered carrier

China's first carrier, commissioned in 2012, was a repurposed Soviet ship, and its second was built in China but based upon Soviet design. Both ships — named Liaoning and Shandong — employ a so-called "ski-jump" launch method, with a ramp at end of a short runway to help planes take off.
003 Fujian, launched in 2022, was country's third carrier and its first to be indigeusly designed and built. It employs an electromagnetic- launch system like those developed and used by U.S. Navy. All three carriers are conventionally powered.

Sea trials hn't even started for Fujian in March when Yuan Huazhi, political commissar for China's People's Liberation Army Navy, confirmed construction of a fourth carrier. Asked if it would be nuclear-powered, he said at time that would "soon be anunced," but so far it has t been.
re has been speculation that China may begin producing two new carriers at once — one 003 like Fujian and one nuclear-powered 004 — something that it has t attempted before but that its shipyards have capacity to do.

Matw Funaiole, senior fellow at Center for Strategic and International Studies' China Power Project, said he doubts China's next carrier will be nuclear-powered. Inste, he said, he would expect People's Liberation Army Navy's fourth carrier to focus on optimizing existing design of Fujian carrier with "incremental improvements."
Nick Childs, senior fellow for naval forces and maritime security at International Institute for Strategic Studies, said Chinese "have taken an incremental approach to ir carrier development with a number of ambitions that will evolve over time."

"For w, ir deployments have been relatively cautious, remaining largely within range of shore support, but projecting influence and to some extent coercion within ir near waters."
Eventually, however, "larger carriers more akin to ir U.S. counterparts will give m more options to project power," Childs said.
It takes several years to build a carrier and bring it into operation, but developing nuclear propulsion for its next generation of warships would eventually give China more power to run vanced systems, such as electromagnetic launchers, rars and new techlogy weapons, Childs said.

"As well as obviating need for ship to refuel regularly and refore giving it much greater range, nuclear power means that without need to carry fuel oil for ship re will be room aboard for fuel and weapons for its aircraft, extending ir capabilities," Childs said.
"Much will depend on what overall size next carrier is, but dition of nuclear power will represent a significant step furr in China's carrier development with a vessel more comparable to U.S. Navy's carriers."
Zhao, of Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said nuclear-powered carriers would provide Chinese military "with greater flexibility and endurance to operate around strategic hotspots, especially along First Island Chain, where most territories disputed by China are located," said Zhao.

First Island Chain includes self-governed island of Taiwan, which China claims as its own and vows to annex it by force if necessary.
U.S. is obligated by a domestic law to supply Taiwan with sufficient weapons to deter invasion, and it could provide assistance to island from its bases in Pacific in event of an invasion or blocke. Tensions also have risen in South China Sea between China and neighboring nations over territorial disputes and maritime claims.
"se carriers could also extend Chinese operations deeper into Western Pacific, furr challenging U.S. military's ability to 'intervene' in regional matters that China views as best resolved by countries from region only," Zhao said.

U.S.-China rivalry

Chinese President Xi Jinping has tasked defense officials with building a "first-class" navy and becoming a maritime power as part of his blueprint for country's rejuvenation.
country's most recent white paper on national defense, dated 2019, said Chinese navy was justing to strategic requirements by "speeding up transition of its tasks from defense on near seas to protection missions on far seas."

People's Liberation Army Navy is alrey world's largest navy with more than 370 ships and submarines. country also boasts powerful shipbuilding capabilities: China's shipyards are building many hundreds of vessels each year, whereas U.S. is building five or fewer, according to a U.S. congressional report late last year.
However, Chinese navy lags behind U.S. Navy in many respects. Among or vants, U.S. currently has 11 carriers, all nuclear powered, allowing it to keep multiple strike groups deployed around world at all times, including in Indo-Pacific.

But Pentagon is growingly increasingly concerned about China's rapid modernization of its fleet, including design and construction of new carriers.
That aligns with China's "growing emphasis on maritime domain and increasing demands" for its navy "to operate at greater distances from mainland China," Defense Department said in its most recent report to Congress on China's military.
And China's "growing force of aircraft carriers extend air defense cover of deployed task groups beyond range of land-based defenses, enabling operations farr from China's shore," report said.