France-China nuclear power cooperation transcends borders: former EDF executive

The nuclear power cooperation between China and France transcends borders and benefit both countries, said Herve Machenaud, former CEO of the Asia Pacific division of Electricite de France (EDF), a major multinational utility company.

Machenaud served as the technical manager of China's Daya Bay Nuclear Power Plant project in the 1980s, when China initially started its exploration in nuclear power field.

He participated in the close cooperation between China and France in nuclear power industry for decades since 1980s, and is an important witness to the friendly exchanges between the two countries.

"China's development in nuclear field initially started out a bit like France in the 1970s. With France's help, China built up its first nuclear power plant, then a second one. There was a learning process, roughly from the 1980s to the early 2000s, embodying near-perfect industrial technology. Cooperation between France and China in the nuclear field began at the Daya Bay Nuclear Power Station. China wanted France to [help] build its first nuclear power plant, and that was a special cooperation," he said.

The nuclear power, with advantages of high energy density and low carbon emissions, is expected to play an important role in future power supply and energy transformation, as countries around the world have been accelerating their clean energy transition.

"The energy transition is clearly an important global issue, in which I think France and China play a special role and shoulder a special responsibility. I think France and China have similar ideas on protecting the nature and assuming international responsibilities. One of the main areas of China-France cooperation is nuclear power. This area meets the needs of the energy transition. This shared vision was reflected in the process of reaching the Paris Agreement. China and France have played a very special role in promoting it," Machenaud said.

Machenaud said the cooperation in nuclear power between France and China can benefit both his home country and China, and a true way for cooperation is expected to be find in the future for the two countries.

"I'm proud to help China launch its plans to harness nuclear energy, as I think, in this work, I benefited both France and China. I would like to say that one party will not hinder the other, as it is a common interest that transcends borders and countries. I hope that, for our bilateral relationship, France and China can find a way to truly cooperate. I also hope that geopolitics will not impact the mutual benefits between China and France," he said.

France-China nuclear power cooperation transcends borders: former EDF executive

Chinese scientists have recently worked together and rebuilt the face of an ancient Chinese ethnic minority emperor via cutting-edge DNA technology.

Emperor Wu of the Xianbei-led Northern Zhou Dynasty (557-581), also known as Yuwen Yong, was an ambitious leader who died at 36. He belonged to the Xianbei nomadic group, which originated from the Mongolian Plateau.

The tomb of the emperor was discovered in 1993 in a village of the city of Xianyang in northwest China's Shaanxi Province. His skull and bones were discovered during an excavation held in 1994 and 1995 at the site of his tomb.

In late March this year, scientists led by the Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology and the Institute of Archaeological Science of Fudan University managed to decode key features of the emperor and speculate about his cause of death. The emperor might have died from chronic arsenic poisoning due to long-term use of a pellet, which was believed by ancient people to achieve eternal life.

"First, the skeleton can be used to determine age. Second, in terms of age and gender, some pathological research can also be done to see if he had any fractures or other (diseases)," said Zhang Jianlin, a researcher from the Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology.

Obtaining high-quality genomic data is crucial for restoring the face. Through DNA paleogenomics techniques and optimized DNA extraction, database building and capture methods, more history was revealed.

"First, we have done the shorter fragments enrichment method, which is a DNA extraction method. In addition, we have developed some more sensitive database building method suitable for ancient samples with short fragments. You can regard it as a method to amplify the genetic signal, the extracted DNA. The third is that we have developed a capture method that is more suitable for this kind of highly degraded ancient samples. So we have optimized and improved our approach from three aspects at the same time," said Wen Shaoqing, an associate professor of the Institute of Archaeological Science of Fudan University.

The reconstructed face showed that Yuwen Yong had black hair, yellow skin and brown eyes, while his appearance was typical for people from East or Northeast Asia.

Wen said that with the help of the DNA technology, the accuracy of facial restoration can reach 90 percent.

"As for the accuracy of (facial restoration), the current situation is that if there is a skull as a basis, its accuracy will be relatively high," said Wen.

Scientists rebuild face of ancient emperor using advanced DNA technology