In China, experts on alert for quake damage to nuclear facilities

International Herald Tribune ^ | 5/16/08 | William J. Broad Published: May 16, 2008

[Dawnsblood]

China's main centers for designing, making and storing nuclear arms lie in the shattered earthquake zone, leading Western experts to look for signs of any damage that might allow radioactivity to escape.

A senior U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the issue, said the United States was using spy satellites and other means to try to monitor the sprawling nuclear plants.

"There appear to be no immediate concerns," the official said.

Nonetheless, "it's potentially a serious issue," Hans Kristensen, a nuclear arms expert at the Federation of American Scientists, a private group in Washington, said in an interview.

"Radioactive materials could be released if there's damage."

China began building the plants in the 1960s, calculating that their remote locations would make them less vulnerable to enemy attack.

China's main complex for making nuclear warhead fuel, code named Plant 821, is beside a river in a hilly, forested part of the earthquake zone. It is some 25 kilometers, or 15 miles, northwest of Guangyuan in Sichuan Province. The vast site holds China's largest production reactor and factories that mine its spent fuel for plutonium - the main ingredient for modern nuclear arms.

[Bender2]

Excellent article that touches on the kind of things nObama would say is not important to us.

No wonder the Chicoms are dropping paratroopers in, they have a lot of hush-hush nuke stuff to make sure is safe and secure!

[Steve Van Doorn]

"their remote locations would make them less vulnerable to enemy attack."

I never thought of it that way. I wonder if that was our primary goal as well and the other just sounded good for an easer sell.

[Spaulding]

Its about money! Federation of American Scientists is one of the older
environmental legal groups. They see lots of opportunities
for lawsuits with the apprehension of the revived interest in nuclear power. The International Herald Tribune is another clue. Don't pay too much attention. They specialize in fear for the technically challenged - and with some topics, the counter arguments are too complex to present. Its simple: If we don't develop nuclear and continue to allow only other countries to drill for petroleum off of our shores our economy will weaken and we will become more beholden to people and countries who do look out for their own interests. First the French, and now the Chinese, are developing the technology we pioneered, while gaggles of environmental lawyers make a good living “protecting” us from the evils of nuclear power and global warming - or, since the warming stopped ten years ago, global change. Most of those lawyers are bright people. Its a shame few of them trained in productive fields, but eventually, the cost to society of peddling fear will catch up with them too.

[El Gato]

Just what we need,a billion screaming Chinese who glow in the dark.

Well that will make it easier to shoot them in the dark when or if the time comes to do that.

[VanShuyten]

I saw that video clip of paratroopers and wondered about that. They didn’t look laden for rescue work. I brushed it off as a previously recorded jump film used to show their preparedness for disaster (as commies like to do for propaganda), but maybe they were real troops being sent to protect the nukes.

[JACKRUSSELL]

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