Disregarding post-Fukushima shocks, China is determined to include nuclear power in its energy generation mix and has been busy eyeing to acquire uranium mines overseas to support this plan.

China's suspended nuclear projects will be restarted this year, with the earliest during the first six months of 2012, state-run China Daily reported, quoting Qian Zhiming, deputy director of the National Energy Administration.

Qian said China has completed drafting its nuclear safety guidelines which will soon prompt the resumption of approval and construction of new nuclear projects this year. China took on working its safety guidelines following the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan in March 2011, and crippled its Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

Moreover, China has also finished a safety inspection that showed 14 nuclear safety issues that needs to be immediately fixed, Wang Binghua, chairman of State Nuclear Power Technology Corp., said over the weekend.

To support the expected massive influx of nuclear reactors potentially going online all at the same time, China might need to increase its uranium import this year.

But there is more than meets the eye on this proposed elevation of uranium importation.

A year after Fukushima, China sees the world's appetite for uranium will escalate anew and return back to normal, with "a few overseas mines starting production again this year," Xiao Xinjian, industry expert at the Energy Research Institute, affiliated with the National Development and Reform Commission, was quoted as saying by the China Daily.

The very reason why Guangdong Nuclear Power Group Co offered to buy 261.9 million shares from Kalahari Minerals Plc, a global resource company owning uranium and gold reserves in Namibia. The deal, which effectively made Guangdong Nuclear Power Group Co majority owner of Kalahari Minerals at 98 per cent, can help China generate 850 tonnes of uranium annually, and further increase it to 2,500 tonnes in the future, a researcher on uranium told the China Daily.

At present, China sources 95 per cent of its uranium from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Namibia and Australia. In 2011, it imported 16,126 tonnes of uranium, data from the General Administration of Customs showed. In 2010, it imported 17,136 tonnes, three times the quantity of the previous year, data from the same agency said.

For 2012, Qian said the amount could remain the same this year, or could be increased.

China's annual consumption of uranium is seen to hit reach 20,000 tonnes by 2020, about one third of global output in 2009, the World Nuclear Association earlier said.