Nearly every Chinese nuclear project that has entered service since 2010 has achieved construction in seven years or less, a trend that flies in the face of the longstanding claims that nuclear reactors require a decade or more to build, the pro-nuclear research centre the Breakthrough Institute said.

According to the US-based institute, China, India, South Korea and Pakistan are proving more favourable for nuclear project construction than the West.

Success elsewhere also illustrates that hurdles faced by recent nuclear projects in the US, France or Finland do not originate from some inherent quality of nuclear power, but rather logically reflect “a combination of regulatory, market, political, and societal factors”.