TNAG-1505-FCO40-2063-Guangdong-nuclear-power-station-project-at-Daya-Bay-safety-c-1986 — Page 89

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

London SW1A 2AH

(648)

From The Minister of State

3 October 1986

Dear Pow. Lo Chi Kin,

НКК 166/1

ALCEIVED ¦.

INDLX

8 OCT 1986

1829.8/x

Thank you for your letter of 12 September to Sir Geoffrey Howe about the proposed nuclear power plant at Daya Bay.

We are very conscious of our responsibility for the well-being and safety of the people of Hong Kong, as part of our overall responsibility for the territory. We have followed very closely expressions of concern in Hong Kong about the safety of the Daya Bay project and have relayed this concern to the Chinese authorities. In doing so we have stressed the need for them to take steps publicly to allay this concern by demonstrating that the plant will be built, operated and managed to proper standards of safety. The Chinese authorities have recently announced several measures to assure the safety of their civil nuclear power programme, and have emphasised that safety and quality are paramount in their planning.

We were pleased that the Chinese authorities received the UMELCO delegation before contracts for the project were signed, and that China has given considerable publicity to the various measures which it intends to implement on safety. We feel that these actions on the part of the Chinese authorities indicate that they are indeed taking proper account of the views and concerns of Hong Kong people.

Of course, no one can give an absolute assurance that the operation of any power station, whether nuclear or conventional, will be entirely problem-free; the report of the UMELCO fact-finding teams fully recognises this. Against the very low probability of an accident, provided safety aspects are properly observed in the design, construction and operation of nuclear power stations, must be set the undoubted benefits of nuclear power. The British Government, like the governments of virtually all major industrialist countries, is committed to nuclear power to generate part of its energy needs.

Mr Lo Chi Kin

Hong Kong Link 22 Coleman Fields LONDON N1 7AF