Antinuclear

Organised anti nuclear program in China

many of the companies building nuclear power plants and the government have not held honest discussions with stakeholders and are unwilling to provide adequate information.  The Ministry of Environmental Protection rejected Caixin’s application for more information on documents related to the Pengze plant’s environmental assessment.

“Our actions are divided into three phases: official, media and litigation,” Wang said. Petitioning the government was the first step, and using the media to attract attention the second. “If this still doesn’t work, we can only move to litigation. In the next step, we’ll sue whichever departments approved construction of the Pengze nuclear plant, and we’ll sue to the end.”

Ex-officials battle China nuclear plant plan, Market watch,Retired officials vigorously battle China nuclear power plant plan By Cui Zheng BEIJING ( Caixin Online ) —”… the meltdown on March 11, 2011, is still fresh on the minds of four retired cadres in Wangjiang County.
They petitioned against the Pengze nuclear power project in neighboring Jiangxi Province and ultimately convinced their local government to oppose the plan. This kind of official opposition to a nuclear undertaking is almost unheard of in China.

The Pengze plant would be China’s first inland nuclear power facility.
It is north of the Yangtze River, and only ten kilometers (6.25 miles)
from the center of Wangjiang County. The nearest Wangjiang village is
only three kilometers away. Two months after the Fukushima mess,
former Wangjiang County Party Committee deputy secretary Wang Jinzhou,
former county people’s court chief justice Fang Guangwen, former
county people’s congress deputy director Tao Guoxiang, and former
urban-rural construction bureau director Wang Jize began collecting
public materials on the Pengze plant. They then checked this
information against national construction standards and regulations.

In July 2011, they completed an 11-page petition that called for the
project to be halted and sent it to the State Council, the Ministry of
Environmental Protection, the Anhui provincial government and the
county government. The petition said the population data in
application materials related to the Pengze facility was falsified,
seismic data was unreliable and gifts were used to bribe villagers
during a survey of public opinion.

The group first sent its petition to the county government. But it
took no position until two organizations leading the project — the
Jiangxi National Defense Science and Industry Office and China Power
Investment Jiangxi — arrived in Wangjiang in August 2011 to undertake
safety research and ask the county to provide geographic data. Fang
said that it was at this juncture that the county for the first time
expressed its opposition to building the plant in its vicinity. The
county refused to provide the data.
Then, the Wangjiang government researched the plant more, and on Nov.
15, 2011, it completed a report that requested the project be called
off. The county government gave its report to the Anhui Energy Bureau.
But several months later, the county government had not received a
response. Only when the document was linked to on a microblog, causing
widespread concern, did the bureau say the county’s report had been
forwarded to National Development and Reform Commission, the nation’s
top economic planner. The NDRC has not commented……
The projects he referred to are the Wuhu Fanchang, Chizhou Jiyang,
Anqing Congyang and Xuancheng nuclear power plants along the Yangtze
River. The Jiyang site is less than 50 kilometers from the Pengze
plant and less than 15 kilometers from a small town in Wangjiang
County.

Before the Fukushima disaster, these projects met little resistance…
As the pace of work on China’s nuclear power projects picks up, there
are differing attitudes toward the retiree’s petition and the
opposition by the Wangjiang County government.

He Zuoxiu, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, who has
long opposed inland nuclear plants, said the petition was “quite
right” and would try to forward it to national leaders.

In a letter, the Yangtze River Water Resources Protection Bureau said
that the Pengze project has yet to conduct necessary procedures
relating to water assessments, intake permits and sewage
discharge…… many of the companies building nuclear power plants and the government have not held honest discussions with stakeholders and are unwilling to provide adequate information. The Ministry of
Environmental Protection rejected Caixin’s application for more information on documents related to the Pengze plant’s environmental assessment.

The four retired officials in Wangjiang plan to continue opposing the
Pengze plant and inland nuclear projects in general. Wang said that
the discussion over whether to stop work on the Pengze facility was a
referendum on inland plants…….
“Our actions are divided into three phases: official, media and litigation,” Wang said. Petitioning the government was the first step, and using the media to attract attention the second. “If this still doesn’t work, we can only move to litigation. In the next step, we’ll sue whichever departments approved construction of the Pengze nuclear plant, and we’ll sue to the end.” http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ex-officials-battle-china-nuclear-plant-plan-2012-03-11

June 7, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized