New efforts will be made to ensure nuclear and radioactive
security now that nuclear power generation is growing and
radioactive treatments are widely used in medical service.
Zhou Shengxian, Minister of the State Environmental Protection
Administration (SEPA), told a high-level conference yesterday that
the central government had allocated a budget of 40 million yuan
(US$5.12 million) to monitor possible nuclear and radioactive
pollution.
The significance of nuclear and radioactive security was
underscored by Zhou's mention of China's emergency surveillance and
evaluation following the nuclear test last October in neighbouring
Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Nuclear and radioactive security is defined as regular
inspection of nuclear use and operations, and effective response in
emergencies.
SEPA last year set up six nuclear and radioactive
security-related monitoring centers based in Beijing and Shanghai,
Guangdong and Sichuan provinces, and the northeast and northwest
regions.
But nuclear power generation is expected to grow in leaps and
bounds in the next few years, Zhou noted.
Nuclear power accounts for 2 percent of China's energy
consumption, with a generation capacity of nearly 8 million
kilowatts in 2006.
But the targets are to reach 12 million kilowatts by 2010 and 40
million kilowatts by 2020.
SEPA will strengthen supervision of nuclear power plants both
under construction and in operation, Zhou said.
In medical and other services, environmental officials admit
that some radioactive materials are not properly disposed of,
posing a potential threat to public health.
Zhou said that 2007 will be the last year of a transition in
which the handling of radioactive materials used by hospitals will
be done by the environmental, rather than medical, authorities.
In a related development, China Daily has learned that Li
Ganjie, former director of the SEPA nuclear and radioactive
security department, was promoted as the administration's youngest
deputy minister at the end of 2006.
Poor performance
In overall terms, however, the environmental picture is bleak.
Instead of meeting the target of reducing pollution emissions by 2
percent per year, chemical oxygen demand a key index of water
quality and sulphur dioxide emissions actually grew 1.9 percent and
2.4 percent in 2005.
Zhou blamed the failure on slow progress in industrial
restructuring and local officials' wasteful investment
projects.
(China Daily January 17, 2007)