CONFIDENTIAL
3.
group of
Highlights of this concern include an advertisement
in the Hong Kong Economic Journal signed by a environmentalists and academics appealing to the Hong Kong
and Chinese authorities to reconsider the project.
Environmental pressure groups
in Hong Kong (including Friends of the Earth) keep the issue on the boil. A HKU
lecturer has warned that an accident at Daya Bay in
February to April would create a radio-active cloud that
could remain over Hong Kong for weeks. A public forum on 8 June, organised by a coalition of environmentalists and
academics, was attended by 500 people. A petition urging
suspension of the project has attracted 12,000 signatures;
the coalition's target is 500,000 signatures. It intends
to present the
to the Chinese and
and Hong Kong
authorities.
petition
4.
The Hong Kong Government consider that suggestions
that they should seek to have the project put on ice until
the community can be assured about safety are unlikely to
gather momentum unless they come to be supported by
UMELCO. If however UMELCO fail to endorse the Hong Kong
Government's reassurances about safety, the Hong Kong
Government could be in severe difficulties. If a serious
accident occurred in a French reactor, opposition in Hong
Kong to the Daya Bay plant might become uncontrollable.
Recent Chinese Statements
5.
Following earlier statements along similar lines by
officials Li Peng, as Minister responsible for the project, is reported to have said, during a visit to the Daya Bay site on 21 May, that:
and
(a) "safety first and quality first" must be the
guiding principles for the construction operation of China's nuclear power stations;
CONFIDENTIAL