Government steps up nuclear precautions
BY ANDREA DENG
Mar 7 2012
China Daily
The SAR government has taken further steps to improve contingency plans in the event of a nuclear accident at Daya Bay Nuclear Plant in Shenzhen.
Two more real-time radiation monitoring stations have been set up in Chek Lap Kok in the western part of Hong Kong and Cape D’Aguilar in the southern part, aside from the 10 existing stations.
The government also plans to purchase a number of mobile radiation detection apparatuses, which will be used at cross-border checkpoints in the event of a nuclear accident.
An independent website for Daya Bay Contingency Plan — www.dbcp.gov.hk — was launched on Tuesday, aiming to increase public knowledge about procedures during a nuclear emergency.
The website also updates information relating to Daya Bay, enhanced safety measures, and any natural disaster occurring near Hong Kong.
http://www.facebook.com/nuclearfree
http://www.facebook.com/nukefree
Meanwhile, an exercise to simulate a nuclear accident will be held in the second quarter of this year, possibly in Tung Ping Chau — the nearest locale to the Daya Bay.
But a scenario has yet to be designed in the attempt to best examine the capability of dealing with the emergency by various government departments, such as notification and alerting procedures of the Security Bureau, radiation monitoring and assessment by the Hong Kong Observatory and Water Supplies Department, communication with the public and handling of the panic, among many other aspects.
The latest steps, announced on Tuesday, come just ahead of the anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear disaster started on March 3, 2011. The accident, at the same level as the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, was triggered by an earthquake and tsunami, aggravated by equipment failures inside the aging facility.
It eventually produced serious nuclear reactor meltdown and subsequent radioactive releases. Local officials say they are fully confident that the Daya Bay Nuclear Station has very little chance of suffering a calamity similar to the incidents at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, or Chernobyl.
The Hong Kong government maintains that the facilities and equipment at Daya Bay are much more technically advanced and have a much lower chance of meltdown than the Fukushima No1 nuclear plant.
The environmental group Greenpeace, has expressed concern over possible handling of a nuclear incident by the SAR government. The NGO issued a brief report just a few days ago about how the Japanese government failed to address various problems that arose during last year’s emergency, due to the inadequate contingency plan that did not match the level of the disaster, adding there was insufficient preparation.
A government source from the Security Bureau said that the Fukushima case cannot be fully applied in Hong Kong,
because crisis should be assessed case by case and require different handling accordingly. Officials, however, did read through Greenpeace’s report and accepted some of the views.
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