Greenpeace Hong Kong slams nuclear 'complacency' on Daya Bay

Greenpeace slams nuclear 'complacency' on Daya Bay
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Kenneth Foo 
The Standard


A green group yesterday slammed the government's nuclear disaster contingency measures as "dangerously outdated" and urged it to abandon plans for future atomic expansion.


Greenpeace said the fallout from any meltdown at the Daya Bay nuclear plant in Guangdong will be many times that of the Fukushima disaster last year in Japan.



http://www.facebook.com/nuclearfree
http://www.facebook.com/nukefree



The group claimed the 20-kilometer evacuation zone around the Daya Bay plant in current plans is insufficient as winds can carry radiation fallout as far as 80 kilometers (not just 80 km!) . Hong Kong is just 50km away from the plant.


There are also no risk assessments and detailed emergency plans to protect the people of Hong Kong from the health and economic repercussions of a nuclear disaster, it said.


"It is ridiculous that governments can approve nuclear reactors but are not ready to protect people from nuclear risks, hazards and disasters," said senior campaigner Prentice Koo Wai-muk.


"You can finish reading the whole emergency plan in a matter of minutes because there is simply nothing there."


He also urged the government to shelve plans to double the amount of power generated through nuclear means by 2020 (Stop import any Nuclear Power!) .


CLP Holdings has a 25 percent stake in Daya Bay, which supplies about 23 percent of the territory's electricity.


Security Bureau officials have rated the chances of a meltdown on the scale of Fukushima at three in 100 million.


This led Koo to accuse them of complacency as Fukushima officials had estimated the chances of a nuclear disaster to be as low as one in a million, but the disaster still occurred.

Greenpeace urges Hong Kong government to drop Nuclear power expansion

Greenpeace urges govt to drop N-power expansion
2/29/2012
By Fan Feifei (HK Edition)
China Daily


Greenpeace on Tuesday called upon the government to drop all plans for nuclear power expansion, and to review the "Daya Bay Contingency Plan" immediately. 


The environmental group said there is a lesson to be learned from the Fukushima nuclear disaster last year on March 11. The disaster at the Fukushima reactor triggered off an earthquake and a tsunami.



http://www.facebook.com/nuclearfree
http://www.facebook.com/nukefree



The report, released by the organization indicated that the Japanese government's insistence of setting a 20 kilometer (km) evacuation zone was insufficient. Greenpeace also said there was not enough care for the victims affected by the nuclear leak.


Greenpeace underlined that though Japan was considered one of the best-prepared countries in the world for handling nuclear disasters, the reality of the Fukushima disaster proved to be far worse than any disaster plan or nuclear evacuation plan had anticipated.


The organization said Daya Bay nuclear plant had a similar contingency plan to its Japanese counterpart, namely, full countermeasures to be invoked within a 20 km radius around the nuclear power stations in the unlikely event of a serious nuclear accident.


Prentice Koo, Greenpeace senior campaigner, said Hong Kong has less preparation compared with Japan. He also noticed that the densely packed population of Hong Kong might result in more serious incidents.


"This report shows that nuclear energy is inherently unsafe. Nuclear power must be phased out and replaced with smart investments in energy efficiency and renewable power", said Koo.


Koo added, "this approach will create millions of sustainable jobs, improve energy independence, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and will also ensure people will never again suffer radioactive fallout from a preventable disaster".


The organization appealed to Chief Executive candidates to learn from the Fukushima experience, and to formulate more safe energy policies, leading Hong Kong to a sustainable future without nuclear energy.


The environment group also suggested the Security Bereau improve the Daya Bay contingency plan and invite the public to participate in the related formulation.


The Security Bereau said it had set up the advisory panel to make an overall review of the Daya Bay contingency plan since last year and the panel mainly checked the renewal of the infrastructure and safety measures at the Daya Bay nuclear plant.


The group included official members and unofficial members from medical, nuclear power, engineering, atmospheric science, radiology and other sectors.


The Security Bereau still considers the 20 kilometers evacuation zone around nuclear power stations to be sufficient.


The organization also provided mobile phone applications for testing the distance between the users and the location of Daya Bay nuclear plant and then decide where to move in case of disasters.

Fukushima single mother Kanako Nishikata's nuclear challenge Hong Kong's three chief executive contenders

Fukushima mother's nuclear challenge
Chief executive hopefuls face questions on safety and disaster planning from a woman who fled Japan's radiation zone with her children last year
Cheung Chi-fai 
Feb 29, 2012
SCMP       


A single mother from the radiation-contaminated Japanese city of Fukushima will challenge Hong Kong's three chief executive contenders face to face on issues of nuclear safety and clean energy on Saturday, a green group says.


Through the Fukushima experience, Greenpeace hopes the Hong Kong government will review its emergency plan should a nuclear accident break out at the Daya Bay energy plant in Shenzhen. 



http://www.facebook.com/nuclearfree
http://www.facebook.com/nukefree



"Hong Kong is far less equipped than Japan in coping with such a crisis, given our high population density, weak disaster awareness, and lack of space in the city that offers virtually no room to escape from any radiation," Greenpeace campaigner Prentice Koo Wai-muk said.


Mother-of-two Kanako Nishikata will discuss how the nuclear disaster in March last year changed her life.


Now a campaigner to protect children from radiation, Nishikata will attend the City University forum on environmental protection. She is expected to question candidates Henry Tang Ying-yen, Leung Chun-ying and Albert Ho Chun-yan.


She led a quiet life until March 11, when an earthquake and ensuing tsunami damaged nuclear power stations near her Fukushima home, causing a radiation leak. Sceptical of the government's actions to contain the leaks, Nishikata chose to flee inland with her children.


Koo said Nishikata was just one among many people whose lives were thrown into uncertainty by the nation's worst nuclear accident.


"Lessons from Fukushima", a report compiled by global experts, showed how unprepared the Japanese government was in handling the emergency, Greenpeace said.


It said Hong Kong might suffer the same experience should a similar accident occur at the Daya Bay nuclear power station, 50 kilometres from urban Hong Kong. Like the Japanese, Koo said, Hong Kong might be overestimating the safety of Daya Bay. "The decades-old [safety] assessment is bound to be inaccurate now."


He also called on the government to release computer modelling results on the effects on various parts of Hong Kong of a nuclear accident.


Koo said a plan to help hospital patients, pregnant women or single elderly people should also be drafted. About 570 such people died through negligence in Fukushima, he said.


There was also the question of how to support people told to stay at home for safety reasons. During the Fukushima crisis, the mayor of Minamisoma appealed on YouTube for help for residents told to stay home for more than 10 days.


The Security Bureau said a review of procedures in the event of a nuclear incident was being completed and would be released soon.


chifai.cheung@scmp.com