Thousands of people took to the streets of an eastern Chinese city this weekend to protest against a proposed nuclear waste reprocessing facility, in a show of public opposition that China fears could derail its ambitious plans to construct dozens of nuclear reactors.

China has been building nuclear reactors at a blistering pace, part of a plan for non-fossil fuels to provide a fifth of national energy supply by 2030. The country so far lacks sufficient nuclear waste processing facilities to handle the output from its planned reactors, and is also short of enrichment facilities to process fuel for the reactors to burn.

Anti-nuclear protests in China have been few and far between but Beijing has treated them with kid gloves for fear of setting off broader public opposition to the state’s nuclear plans. The only two nuclear projects that have attracted significant public opposition in the past 10 years have been called off.