China will establish a national emergency and rescue team with about 320 members to deal with nuclear power emergencies over the next 5 years.

The decision came after the country published its first white paper on nuclear emergency preparedness.

The nuclear emergency rescue team will mainly be responsible for dealing with serious nuclear accidents as well as taking part in international rescue operations.

The team, scheduled to be established next year, is actually part of an upcoming unified, fully-fledged national nuclear emergency response capabilities system.

Yao Bin, Head of Nuclear Emergency and Security Division under China's State Administration of Science, Technology, and Industry for National Defense, said the team will be mobilized during possible nuclear power accidents.

"Under the leadership of the State Council, or China's Cabinet, China's national nuclear accident emergency coordination commission and the national emergency office will have unified authority to deploy the team."

China has already founded over 30 national professional rescue teams to specifically take charge of various types of specialized rescue missions in different regions.

For his part, Xu Dazhe, director of the China Atomic Energy Authority, believes that to ensure public safety when there's a nuclear accident must always be the top priority.

"Among all those lines of defense for nuclear security, nuclear emergency preparedness is the last one. For us, the most important task now is to improve the safety level of nuclear construction, and prevent accidents from occurring via innovation, secure and reliable standards, as well as advanced technologies and equipment."

To that end, the white paper says China will build and maintain national nuclear emergency capabilities commensurate with the safe and efficient development of nuclear energy.

Xu also notes that China is considering construction of offshore nuclear power plants. He says the country will conduct a "careful and scientific" feasibility review before it makes its decision.

According to the newly issued white paper, China plans to raise its installed nuclear power capacity to 58 gigawatts with an additional 30 gigawatts under construction by 2020.

China will also speed up drafting the nuclear safety law and atomic energy law.

Yao Bin explained the significance of issuing the white paper.

"Releasing the nuclear emergency preparedness to the society in the form of a white paper can help the public comprehensively understand China's nuclear emergency preparedness work, and enhance the entire society's confidence in developing nuclear energy."

Zhu Xuhui, former General Manager of China National Nuclear Corporation, says nuclear emergency preparedness is inherent in China's nuclear development.

"The white paper makes public the mechanisms for China's nuclear emergency preparedness , which indicates China attach great importance to nuclear safety when developing nuclear energy. It echoes President Xi Jinping's nuclear security concept: both development and safety are important, development is premised on safety."

In March 2014, Chinese President Xi Jinping for the first time elaborated on the country's nuclear security concept of sensible, coordinated and balanced development while addressing the 3rd Nuclear Security Summit in the Hague.

As of the end of October 2015, the Chinese mainland had 27 nuclear power generating units in operation, with a total installed capacity of 25.5 gigawatts.

Another 25 units with a total installed capacity of 27.5 gigawatts are under construction.