TNAG-1502-FCO40-2060-Guangdong-nuclear-power-station-project-at-Daya-Bay-safety-c-1986 — Page 120

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CHINA NUCLEAR: PUBLICITY

1.

There has been some publicity recently in the Chinese press of which you may wish to be aware. Firstly there was a "letter" in the Overseas Edition of Liaowang (Outlook Weekly) of 28 July 1986. It is from Zhang Hu and addressed to his "brother" in Hong Kong who had written to say that there were some people opposed to Daya in Hong Kong and were organising a petition and that there was a story that the Chinese government was reconsidering the project. Mr Zhang said:

(i) China was not reconsidering any part of its nuclear policy, including Daya Bay, but it was paying very great attention to safety;

(ii) the magazine Outlook had already published a number of pieces on nuclear safety, which showed how seriously the Chinese took the issue;

(iii) the author had just seen a State Council document approving four new measures on nuclear safety to go into effect from 7 July;

(iv) the State Council had recently set up a Special Bureau of Nuclear Safety;

(v) the State Council was taking steps to ensure that its safety regulations were obeyed;

(vi) leafing through the new regulations had dispelled all the author's worries about nuclear safety, every imaginable contingency had been catered for;

(vii) there would be equally detailed regulations for the operation of the plant.

2.

The other was an account of a visit to the Joint Venture Company published in People's Daily on 1 August and People's Daily (Overseas) the previous day. It was entitled "Safety Above All". It was in four sections:

(a) In regard to earthquakes, American safety standards for siting were used and excelled, and furthermore the project would be able to withstand a grade 8 earthquake;

There

(b) Precautions had been and were being taken against the highly unlikely event of an accident involving radiation. were over 30 such reactors in France and no cases of excessive radiation had occurred. Experts from the British Atomic Energy Authority had helped in preparing forecasts;

/(c)...

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