China is building nuclear reactors faster than the West. Can it keep up the pace?

When Francois Morin, China director at the World Nuclear Association – a leading international industry body – took a group of foreign nuclear engineers to a Shanghai Electric plant last year, the scale of production caught them off guard. Heavy machinery, from steam generators to reactor cores, was already assembled and ready for shipment to sites where construction had not even begun. The equipment towered over the delegates, many of whom were accustomed to supply chains back home that produce...