TRACES of radioactive iodine have been picked up in Heilongjiang province and featured prominently in the media, turning the focus to nuclear safety. However, the continuing crisis in Japan is unlikely to derail China’s nuclear ambitions, experts say.
China sees nuclear power as a way of both cutting dependence on dirty coal and making cheap energy available, and its nuclear expansion programme is by far the biggest in the world, though it has been stalled since the disaster at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
The pause in the programme is unlikely to last long.
"The safety of China's nuclear power facilities is guaranteed and China will not abandon its nuclear power plan for fear of slight risks," Tian Jiashu, director of two nuclear safety centres under the ministry of environmental protection, told the People's Daily.
There have been no defects observed in China’s nuclear power plants and the safety indices of the plants were generally higher than the global average.
China has more than 13 nuclear reactors and is building approximately another 28, which equates to roughly 40 per cent of the world’s total currently under construction.
Strict laws, regulations and technical standards regarding site selection, design, construction, testing, operation and the decommissioning of nuclear power plants were all stringently implemented, Mr Tian said.
The goal, ultimately, is to have 100 nuclear power plants.
According to media reports, there are only 300 people responsible for the safety and security of nuclear plants in China, which means only 11 people per each plant, compared to about 40 per plant overseas.
Experts say that in 2012 the safety and security working staff will increase to 1,200 to make sure the security guarantee work matches the rate of development of nuclear plants.
Zhang Guobao, formerly minister of National Energy Administration, told the Jinan Daily that “this security guarantee level is appropriate to the development of the nuclear industry in China”.
However, people are nervous in China. Last week, panic buying of salt after text messages saying it would combat the effects of radiation emptied the shops of salt.
The ongoing Japanese crisis has got people worried about the safety of China’s nuclear plants, and China’s National Nuclear Emergency Co-ordination Committee issued a statement at the weekend saying it had detected radioactive material in the air for the first time and that the iodine was believed to have come from Fukushima.
The organisation insisted public health and the environment remained unaffected by radioactivity and no protective measures are needed, because the levels of the radioactive material were below one-hundred-thousandth of the average level.