Local activist Scott Chiang Meng Hin, accompanied by non-establishment lawmaker Ng Kuok Cheong, yesterday petitioned the government to disclose details of an alleged “contingency” at the Taishan nuclear power plant.
Chiang told reporters after handing in the petition to a government representative outside Government Headquarters that the information released by the operator of the station, state-owned China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN) was lacking transparency, adding that a statement published by the local police yesterday morning said the “same things” as CGN. He said that residents were worried that the nuclear plant could affect public health in Macau.
The plant lies some 70 kilometres northwest of Macau.
Chiang urged the government to request more detailed information about the alleged incident. He suggested that there should be a better communication system between the mainland and the local government, so that residents would not learn about the “incident” through foreign media.
According to Chiang, before the full details about the situation were disclosed, the government should have set up a risk management contingency plan such as imposing stricter radiological tests on goods imported from Guangdong province. Chiang also said that the government launched a new civil protection system last year, stressing that residents should be alerted by the government about radiological incidents and be prepared for them.
Police say plant’s indicators ‘are normal’
A statement by the Unitary Police Service (SPU) said yesterday that after communicating with the operator of the nuclear plant about the latter’s statement, they were told that “the environmental indicators of the Taishan Nuclear Power Plant and its surroundings are normal”.
The statement also said that according to the information provided by the Macau Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau (SMG) as of 4 a.m. yesterday the gamma ray levels detected in Macau in the last 24 hours were normal.
The statement stressed that according to the Emergency Management of Nuclear Accidents at the Guangdong Nuclear Power Station Cooperation Agreement between Guangdong and Macau, the mainland side will alert Macau’s Unitary Police Service when any accident occurs and the information received will be passed on to the public.
The statement said that since the beginning of 2021, the SPU has received two alerts from the plant, adding that both were zero danger level cases, which were reported on February 21 and April 5. The statement underlined that neither case affected the health of the plant’s workers, the health of the public and the surrounding environment negatively, adding that the plant was operating safely when the two reported incidents happened.
Scott Chiang Meng Hin (centre) is accompanied by lawmaker Ng Kuok Cheong (left) while handing a petition about an alleged “contingency” at theTaishan nuclear power plant to an official outside Government Headquarters yesterday. Photo courtesy of TDM
