A nuclear emergency at the Daya Bay Nuclear Power Station, such as one similar to the failure at the Fukushima power plant in Japan, would be impossible, nuclear experts told a meeting of about 130 residents living near the Daya Bay plant.
The Daya Bay station has been equipped with a steam turbine to feed a water pump and an evaporation ventilation system to keep fuel rods cool, said Zhou Jianping, a nuclear expert at the Daya Bay power station who attended the meeting Friday. The meeting was aimed at easing public concern over nuclear safety in the wake of the nuclear emergency at Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant following a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and a massive tsunami about 10 days ago.
The Daya Bay power station also has an extra diesel engine in case any of the engines break down, said Zhou. It was therefore highly unlikely that the power supply to the nuclear station would be totally cut off, resulting in a breakdown of the cooling system, like which happened at Fukushima, according to a report in Saturday s Southern Metropolis Daily.
Concern about radiation leaks at the Daya Bay Nuclear Power Station after the Fukushima nuclear crisis mounted among residents of the Pearl River Delta last week. Fears have been lingering about a possible meltdown at the Fukushima power plant after the cooling systems in the No. 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 reactors broke down. When the cooling system failed, the rods would become so hot that they would melt and breach containment structures and escape into the environment, contaminating the soil and releasing radioactive particles into the air.
Dai Qingjun, another expert at the meeting, said the design of the Daya Bay Nuclear Power Station was far more advanced than the Fukushima plant. The technology of pressurized water reactor (PWR) developed in the 1980s is used at the Daya Bay station and it has greatly raised safety standards, Dai said. The PWR technology enables pressure in the primary coolant loop prevents the water from boiling within the reactor.
In addition, the location of the Daya Bay station was chosen after thorough consideration of a possible earthquake and tsunami, he said. No earthquakes of magnitude 5 or above had been recorded in the vicinity of the power plant and no earthquakes of magnitude 6 had been reported within a radius of 20 kilometers around the power station, the Southern Metropolis Daily said. The chance of a strong earthquake around the nuclear station was very slim, earlier Chinese language media reports said quoting earthquake experts.
The Daya Bay station is on the Dapeng Peninsula in Longgang District, about 45 kilometers from downtown Shenzhen and about 52 kilometers from Tsim Sha Tsui in Hong Kong.
Commissioned in 1994, the Daya Bay station was the second nuclear power station built on the Chinese mainland. It generates 30 billion kilowatts of electricity each year, 70 percent of which is transmitted to Hong Kong with the remaining 30 percent supplied to the China Southern Power Grid.
Separately, the location for a new nuclear power station operated by China Guangdong Nuclear Power Corp. will be reconsidered by taking into account extreme weather conditions such as super typhoons and tsunamis, as well as earthquakes.
(By Wei Jie)
