Daya Bay opens up to say nuclear danger is remote

Daya Bay opens up to say nuclear danger is remote Colleen Lee  Friday, March 25, 2011 The management of the Daya Bay nuclear power station has sought to allay fears, saying the problems that are plaguing the Fukushima nuclear power plant are highly unlikely to repeat itself in Guangdong. Following the crisis in Japan, the company's nuclear safety expert, Chen Tai, also made it clear the chances of a nuclear explosion happening in Daya Bay are remote. "From the physics point of view, it is impossible to have a nuclear explosion [in the plant]," Chen said. He said a nuclear explosion occurs when the concentration of uranium-235 reaches more than 90 percent. "The concentration [of uranium] in Daya Bay is below 4 percent," Chen said. ADVERTISEMENT The Daya Bay Nuclear Power Operations and Management Company yesterday opened the 17-year-old, two- reactor plant to the media. The plant, which supplies about 23 percent of the territory's electricity, lies about 50 kilometers from Hong Kong. Chen said Daya Bay is equipped with back-up power in case of an electricity failure. He stressed the reactor core can be cooled down even when there is no electricity. He also said there is little chance of the plant being hit by a tsunami as the sea around Daya Bay is just 20m to 30m deep and surrounding islands can act as natural shields. Nevertheless, walls as high as 16m above sea level run along the perimeter of the plant area. Daya Bay, he said, is on the Eurasian plate and about 1,000km west of the boundary of the Pacific plate and 2,000km east of the Indian plate. Since 288 AD, the most severe of the 46 earthquakes recorded within a 150km radius of the plant reached magnitude 6.1, he said. Daya Bay management plans to hold a massive drill in November. Qiao Enju, the firm's emergency expert, said: "During that drill, we may add some scenarios based on the ones to be drawn up following the Fukushima incident." When asked if the drill may take into account a scenario in which the plant's cooling systems fail to work after being hit by a tsunami - similar to Fukushima's problems - Qiao said they will wait until investigations into that incident are completed. "When the probe is done, the Daya Bay plant will learn from the Japanese experience and find out if there is any area that needs improvement," he said. Qiao said the drill may involve about 200 to 300 people drawn from various departments of the 3,000-strong workforce. The station usually holds two to three main drills every year, with the next one in June. The scenarios for the upcoming drill have basically been set, Qiao said.