(Photo : The Protest in China )

The Chinese government has officially called off the $6 Billion Uranium Plant contract following major protests from thousands of locales. The uranium-processing facility was supposed to be built in the southern Guangdong province in China.

Like Us on Facebook

The Heshan government officially released a statement affirming that the Longwan Industrial Park proposal is not commended "in order to fully respect the opinion of the masses. This official statement was released yesterday on the Heshan government's official website. It further states that the release of a "social-stability risk assessment" of the plan to the public garnered "much opposition" from the public. The proposal was publicized on July 4, 2013.

The $6 Billion project was supposed to supply uranium to nuclear power plants of Yangjiang, Dayawan, and Taishan. It aims to reduce the inefficiency and cost of long-distance transportation since most of the nuclear fuel processing plants are located in the western area of China. Although Zhao Yamin, a researcher from the Ministry of Environmental Protection, attests that the nuclear fuel will not generate radiation nor the manufacturing process will not cause pollution, many locales express their fear that this might still happen.

This decision to call off the $6 Billion (37 Billion yuan) project displays the influence of the Chinese people under the new government. The Heshan government is the newest local authority to yield due to public pressure. However, this is not the first time this has happened. Previous industrial-related proposals from all over the country have been called off over the years due to public pressure. The paraxylene (PX) producing proposals also met the same fate. Most locales have stated their concerns with regards to the pollution and safety of these projects.

According to Willy Wo-Lap Lam, a history professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, "Chinese civil society is getting stronger. People now realize if their numbers are being enough, if they are united and stand their ground, the government will back down," the professor attested.