BEIJING, April 30 -- Nuclear safety is the lifeline of nuclear industry. Sun Qin, director of National Defense Science and Engineering Commission and director of National Atomic Energy Agency made the remark in his article published in People's Daily to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster.

    Sun Qin stressed that to develop nuclear energy needs one to be fully aware of the importance of safety and implement the policy of always 'putting safety and quality first' and create an atmosphere of paying attention to nuclear safety culture and pay greater attention to design, manufacturing, building and operating process management, further strengthen safety supervision and truly make a good preparation for any emergency.

    It's been more than half a century since mankind peacefully used nuclear power for the first time in June 1954 when the former Soviet Union started to use nuclear power on its national grid.

    At present, there are 442 nuclear power generation units in operation in the world, with a generation capacity of 368 million kilowatts, accounting for 16% of world's total power generation for 18 consecutive years. The steady development of nuclear power has proved that it is a new energy which is economical, clean and safe.

    However, one shouldn't forget historical lessons. On April 25th -26th, 1986 the World's worst nuclear power accident occurred at Chernobyl in the former Soviet Union (now Ukraine). The Chernobyl nuclear power plant located 80 miles north of Kiev had 4 reactors and whilst testing reactor number 4 numerous safety procedures were disregarded. At 1:23 am the chain reaction in the reactor became out of control creating explosions and a fireball which blew off the reactor's heavy steel and concrete lid.

    The Chernobyl accident killed more than 30 people immediately, and as a result of the high radiation levels in the surrounding 20-mile radius, 135,000 people had to be evacuated. As recently as 2000, the Ukrainian government was spending 5 percent of its gross domestic product to mitigate consequences of the disaster.

    While causing severe negative effects in political, economic and social aspects in the former Soviet Union as well as the world, the miserable lessons drawn from the disaster have promoted people's awareness in the safety of nuclear power development.

    Over the past 20 years, cooperation and exchanges in nuclear safety have been conducted among countries and the International Atomic Energy Agency has issued new safety standards in nuclear power plant strengthening accident prevention in design and using safety evaluation technology to prevent the problem. Every country that has nuclear power has completed its nuclear safety regulations and standards. Equipments and systems in nuclear power plants have been improved and operation processes are completed. People pay more attention to workers' training and nuclear safety culture so that the safety level in nuclear power plant is improved substantially. The safety in nuclear power has made more and more people accept it and many more think it will be an important substitute for energy in the new century.

    Chernobyl accident has made many countries realize the necessity of preparing for emergency in nuclear accidents and various countries have consolidated relevant work.

    In China, to prevent nuclear power accidents, the State Council has issued a Supervision and Management Provision on the Safety of Civil Use Nuclear Facilities and Provisions on Nuclear Material Control in 1986 and 1987 respectively. In 1993, the State Council issued another regulation on emergent nuclear accidents. In order to strengthen leadership in this area, the State Council decided to establish the State Commission on Emergent Nuclear Accident to be in charge of preparation and relief work for emergent national nuclear accident.

    Sun Qin says the emergency system responding to nuclear accidents at national, local and power plant level has operated effectively for the past 20 years.

    In contrast to the Chernobyl nuclear reactor which is graphite-moderated reactor or boiling water reactor, the Chinese one is pressure water or heavy water reactor which is relatively safer in design theory, the structure and safety measures, said Sun.

    Since China designed and developed its first nuclear power plant in 1991, there are now a total of 9 nuclear power generation units which are in operation with a capacity of 7 million kilowatts. Another nuclear power plant in Tianwan is going to be in operation soon. This will add the total capacity to 9 million kilowatts.

    Meanwhile, China has accumulated rich experiences in nuclear power technology research and development, power plant design, equipment manufacturing, engineering management, production management and nuclear safety supervision and management. China is now able to design and build 300 thousand and 600 thousand kilowatts or above generation units. It has been cooperating with other countries and can export mature nuclear power technologies.

    China has made great achievements in its safety records: there was no class B or above operation accidents taking place; the radiation that workers receive was less than the national standards. The power plant's environment radiation supervision data is also very low. Such performance has made the public and government confident in promoting nuclear energy and lay a solid foundation for decision-makers to make correct policies in nuclear plant construction.

    (Source: People's Daily Online)