Nuclear power building – UK’s worry of China’s poor health and safety record

nuclearnews No 2 nuclear power Oct 15 ..…….. it is China’s poor health and safety record which is most worrying. With the power of the Chinese Government and the UK Government’s enthusiasm for Chinese money the concern is that the UK’s nuclear regulators will be sidestepped.

China’s health and safety standards have been thrust into the spotlight this year by a series of chemical explosions. An explosion at a chemical plant in the eastern Chinese province of Shandong shortly before midnight on 31st August 2015 was the second to occur at a chemical plant in Shandong province in a matter of days.

Although no casualties were reported, the blast happened about a fortnight after explosions in the port city of Tianjin, northern China, which killed over 145 people. In the wake of the Tianjin blast, the Communist Party has sacked the head of China’s safety regulator, who was previously the vice mayor of the city. Shortly after, 12 government officials and company executives were detained. (6)

According to Ben Chu, author of ‘Chinese Whispers: Why Everything You’ve Heard About China is Wrong, the disaster in Tianjin was the latest consequence of a system that places personal profit before public safety. He says in China today behind every industrial accident lies a reeking morass of corruption.

Chinese state media reported that the son of a former local police chief was secretly a joint owner of the Tianjin warehouse that went up in a devastating fireball last week, killing 145 people, injuring 674 and damaging some 17,000 homes. He used his official connections to obtain licences for the warehouse, even though it flagrantly breached regulations prohibiting the storage of hazardous chemicals (sodium cyanide in this case) near residential areas. (7)

Does this also apply to nuclear safety? In May leading Chinese scientist He Zuoxiu described China’s plans for a rapid expansion of nuclear power plants as “insane”. He said the country had not invested enough in safety controls after lifting the post-Fukushima disaster moratorium on new reactor construction. He particularly criticised plans to build rectors inland, because if there was an accident it could contaminate rivers that hundreds of millions of people rely on for water and taint groundwater supplies to vast swathes of important farmlands.

He also spoke of risks including “corruption, poor management abilities and decision-making capabilities. China currently does not have enough experience to make sound judgments on whether there could be accidents,” he said. Rather than encouraging debate to expose weaknesses, the government tries to stamp it out, and in a country where challenging officials is risky, there is no mechanism to encourage or protect whistleblowers.

The safety watchdog is not independent. (8) Jeffrey Hendrerson, Professor of International Development at Bristol University says the company which is planning to apply for a GDA of the Hualong One reactor – the China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN) used to be called the China Guangdong Nuclear Power company which was responsible for building and running China’s first nuclear station, Daya Bay, near Hong Kong. It was initially improperly built – with reinforcement rods missing from the concrete base under the reactor – and there have since been reports of minor leakages of radioactive materials (though this is difficult to check, given China’s lack of transparency). (9)

The Chinese Government has now ordered nuclear companies to undertake safety inspections into all the existing nuclear power generation facilities, following the Tianjin explosion. The Ministry of Environmental Protection said that the inspections are intended to make sure that the manufacturing and utilization of nuclear equipment and technology, equipment used at uranium mines, and nuclear radiation are safe and under control. The safety checks on more than 50 nuclear power generating units, which are currently in operation or under construction in the country, are scheduled to be carried out by November. (10)……….http://www.no2nuclearpower.org.uk/nuclearnews/NuClearNewsNo78.pdf

October 10, 2015 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | China, Reference, safety

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