TNAG-1503-FCO40-2061-Guangdong-nuclear-power-station-project-at-Daya-Bay-safety-c-1986 — Page 20

SEP 05 '86 13:50 TIBCOOU) HK GOVT

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Another Economic Journal columnist, Yip Chi-chau, said that some people had wrongly taken the publication of some confidential Government documents by Ming Pao as a sign that the Government wanted to "get off the hook" from the Daya Bay project.

Writing in Wen Wei Po's op-ed page, Au-Yeung Ping said that since the Harwell report was leaked to the press by Government officials, the Government should clear up the situation and put things into proper perspective. The writer said the report had been quoted out of context to put the risk of an N-plant at 1:333.

Wednesday, August 20: The visit to the Nuclear Research Institute in Peking by representatives of the Joint Conference for the Shelving of the Daya Bay Project was prominently reported in the media.

According to reports, the representatives told reporters from HK that as the reactor operated by the institute was mainly for scientific research purposes, a comparison could not be made with the Daya Bay plant because the power at Daya Bay would be 60 times of that of this

reactor.

A China News Service report quoted the deputy director of the institute, Chen Zhenghua, as regretting that the lobbyists should have made inappropriate remarks to the HK media during the visit.

He said some of the representatives, because of inadequate knowledge, had wrongly treated the safety of a reactor and that of a nuclear power plants as different things. He said the safety of a nuclear reactor had nothing to do with its output. Ta Kung Pao reported that responsible persons of the HK delegation later apologised in private to the Chinese authorities.

Another China News Service report said some of the HK visitors showed impatience when nuclear experts spoke to them about nuclear safety. The report said the visitors argued about the itineraries arranged for them for half an hour by insisting on meeting Chinese leaders Zhao Ziyang, Ji Pengfei or their representatives.

The anti-nuclear representatives were disappointed that they were not arranged to meet Chinese leaders. Some reports said they would bring the signatures back to HK in protest. But others said they would present the signatures to the office of the State Council. The representatives decided to cancel this morning's visit to Qinghua University to wait for a reply to their request to meet Chinese

leaders.

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