DHAKA: China is reviving growth of its nuclear power industry with approval of its first new project since Japan’s 2011 Fukushima disaster.

A unit of state-owned China General Nuclear Power Corp. said the Cabinet’s planning agency has approved construction of two additional reactors at a generation station in the northeastern province of Liaoning.

China is the world’s biggest energy consumer and nuclear power plays a key role in government plans to curb surging demand for imported oil and gas, reports the Times of India.

Beijing suspended approvals of new nuclear plants after a tsunami in March 2011 crippled the Fukushima plant’s cooling and backup power systems, causing partial meltdowns in the worst nuclear disaster since the 1986 Chernobyl catastrophe.

The moratorium was lifted last year.

BDST: 1709 HRS, MAR 11, 2015