China’s Foreign Ministry has officially spoken about the Taishan nuclear power plant, after many US media outlets reported on a serious “leak” at this plant.
Taishan Nuclear Power Plant, Guangdong Province, China (Photo: SCMP) Late on June 14, the US media reported that authorities in Washington spent a whole week assessing a report on a possible radioactive leak at the Taishan Nuclear Power Plant (Taishan). ) in Guangdong province, China, after a French company warned of an “imminent radiation threat”. Responding to the news, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian confirmed that radiation levels at the Taishan power plant were normal and there were no safety concerns to report. “There is nothing abnormal in the radiation levels around this nuclear power plant, and safety is still guaranteed,” Trieu said at a press conference on June 15. concerned, the current situation at the Taishan Nuclear Power Plant meets the technical requirements.” He also emphasized that Beijing pays close attention to nuclear safety issues and has a nuclear safety control/management system that fully meets international and domestic standards. Zhao made the statement after the US channel CNN reported earlier this week that the UN Security Council had spent a week assessing the report on the risk of radioactive “leakage” at Taishan. and held “many” meetings on this issue. Framatome – a French nuclear reactor manufacturer that holds a stake in the Taishan plant – is said to have alerted authorities at the US Department of Energy through a letter about the “threat of leakage”. impending radioactive leak” and accused the Chinese government of raising the allowable radiation level to avoid shutting down the power plant. According to a memo cited by CNN, Framatome has sent a letter of petition to Washington to get the US to remove sanctions., It is known that China’s atomic energy industry has been subject to many restrictions imposed by the US. since 2019, due to concerns about the industry’s relationship with the Chinese military. Beijing has criticized the US decision, while some observers say the sanctions are politically motivated. On Sunday, the Dai Son plant also released a statement indicating that radiation levels in and around the plant were “normal” and that its reactors were in good working order. “All performance indicators of the two units meet nuclear safety regulations and plant technical regulations,” the statement said. Last Friday, Framatome released a statement saying that “according to production data, the plant is operating below safety indicators”. However, despite these claims, several US media outlets continued to report on the situation in Taishan, with Newsweek magazine publishing an article titled “Leakage at the Chinese nuclear power plant”. Quoc is reminiscent of Chernobyl, while Taishan insists it is safe.” This article also claims that there are many reports indicating that Taishan brings back “the memories of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986, when the Soviet Union mitigated the problem of radiation levels at one of the nuclear power plants. their nuclear power”. Several other agencies, including Bloomberg, also recalled the Chernobyl incident when reporting on Taishan. France’s Electricite de France (EDF) – the parent company of Framatome – owns a 30% stake in the Taishan plant, along with China Atomic Energy Corporation. The plant consists of two reactors located in southern China, about 75 km from Macao, 140 km west of Hong Kong. This plant started operating between 2018 – 2019 and is said to be the “new generation” of nuclear reactor technology.
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