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4.
Miss Tam told Dr. Blix that nuclear energy was
new to the local population although Hong Kong would be
consuming electricity from the nuclear power station being
built at Daya Bay, some 50 kilometres from Hong Kong. The Daya Bay Nuclear Power Station was a joint venture between the Guangdong Nuclear Investment Company (which was wholly owned by the Chinese Ministry of Nuclear Industry) and the Hong Kong Nuclear Investment Company Limited (which was wholly owned subsidiary of China Light and Power, one of the two electricity supply companies in Hong Kong). These two companies signed the Joint Venture Contract in January 1985 to form the Guangdong Nuclear Power Joint Venture Company to construct and operate the plant. At that time the Daya Bay project was regarded, in most quarters, as encouraging evidence of co-operation between all parties concerned, which augured well for the future. The Chernobyl incident shifted the public's attention to the safety of the plant. Widespread concern was expressed about the proximity of the plant site to Hong Kong, the difficulty of evacuation should this ever be necessary and China's alleged lack of experience in operating a nuclear
plant.
5.
Commenting on the local concerns, Dr. Blix made
the following points
(a) the Daya Bay plant was no closer to Hong Kong
than many other nuclear installations were from
major urban cities;
(b)
by international standards, Hong Kong clearly
fell outside the evacuation zone; and
(c) China had many years of experience in nuclear
research. Although the Cultural Revolution had
delayed the progress of the programme China was