DayaBaynukeplantoperatingsafelyfor15yrs

From: Shenzhen Daily

Updated: 2008-12-30 00:12

THE Daya Bay nuclear power station in Shenzhen, the country"s first large-scale commercial nuclear plant, has been humming along safely for almost 15 years.

As of Sunday, the station had provided 200 billion kilowatt-hours to the power grid, including 137.3 billion kilowatt-hours to Hong Kong, according to a seminar held in Shenzhen to mark the 30 years of development and use of the station.

The plant"s location was decided in 1979, and construction of the station started in 1987. It went into commercial operation in 1994.

An earlier health survey by city authorities found that the health of residents living in the Daya Bay over the past two decades has not been compromised since the establishment of the plant.

The survey, which involved more than 100 professional medical staff, found that during the past 25 years the percentage of cases of leukemia and other cancers in the area was no higher than in other Shenzhen neighborhoods and other cities in Guangdong Province.

Other infectious diseases, mortality rates and the number of babies born with disorders were also equivalent to other areas, said the city"s occupational disease prevention and treatment center, which conducted the survey that began in 1980.

The construction of a nuclear power station in the neighborhood initially drew many objections from local residents who feared they would be exposed to harmful radioactivity.

In written instructions, Wu Bangguo, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People"s Congress, urged summarizing the experience of the Daya Bay nuclear power station and called for further strides in China"s development of nuclear power.

Shenzhen Daily