Background
Note for the Record
Visit to Hong Kong/China 26 April
2 May 1987
The Chinese are building a French Framatom design PWR at Daya Bay in the People's Republic of China. Daya Bay is some 25 km from the border with Hong Kong, and some 50 km from the very densely populated areas in the City of Hong Kong and Kowloon. As a result of the construction of this reactor the Government of Hong Kong commissioned a number of studies by the Authority including one as Contingency Planning. This latter work is being undertaken by Policy Advisory Group, Radiological Safety Division, and to date represents about £40,000 of work. In order to ensure that we are aware of the existing emergency planning organisation and facilties, and to gain local knowledge of Hong Kong, Mark Davies and I made a week's visit to the Territory.
The Visit
We arrived in Hong Kong on the 26th April (the 1st anniversary of the Chernobyl accident), as such our visit gained a very high profile. We were met at the airport by a Government Information Officer who lead us to a group of media people and I made a short statement and answered a few questions. This made headline news on the main 7.30 pm TV news and gained considerable press coverage. (I have a copy of the video and some of the press cuttings).
Most of the week was devoted to a series of discussions with Government Departments plus a few other items (itinerary attached). I will highlight just a few of the main items.
The meeting on Monday with members of the Liaison Group on Government Contingency Planning gave us the opportunity to address a fairly large group of Government Departments. At this meeting I gave a presentation on reactor accidents, their radiological consequences and contingency planning. This was a useful meeting as it gave a chance to set the overall scene before getting into detailed discussions with individual departments.
The meeting on Tuesday with the Legislative Council's Ad Hoc Group on the Daya Bay Nuclear Power Projects was perhaps, similar to appearing before a select committee in the UK. Again I gave a short presentation and answered a number of questions. I believe the session went quite well and this was reflected in the Press coverage that the session received.
On Thursday we travelled to Daya Bay to visit the construction site which is still at the earth moving stage. The Joint Venture Company, who are constructing the reactor, made as welcome. They gave a short presentation and then answered all our questions. We were then shown around the construction site. On the way to Daya Bay we passed a number of workers using wooden ploughs drawn by bullocks. It is therefore easy to understand people's concern about the construction of a nuclear plant when this is an example of the level of technology being used in the surrounding areas.
On Friday we were given a helicopter trip around Hong Kong to gain a feel for the size and local topography off the territory. The rest of the final day was taken up with predominantly rounding up sessions.
We left on Saturday following a Press conference at the airport.
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