BEIJING: China has carried out the country’s first large-scale, aerial survey of radiation levels inside its nuclear power plants and their surrounding regions, which testifies to the safety of the nation’s nuclear industry.
Organized by the China Atomic Energy Authority, the 10-month survey covered eight nuclear power plants on the Chinese mainland, including Qinshan, Sanmen, Tianwan and Xudapu, and their surrounding areas.
During the nationwide operation that took place over the past two years, aircraft sent by the Airborne Survey and Remote Sensing Center of Nuclear Industry, a China National Nuclear Corp subsidiary in Shijiazhuang, the capital of Hebei province, measured radioactivity levels and collected related data about the nuclear facilities and their surrounding regions, covering a total area of 53,970 square kilometers. The survey was conducted by two modified Cessna 208B utility planes with airborne gamma-ray energy dispersive spectrometers. After analyzing more than 1.15 million groups of data, researchers from the Shijiazhuang center concluded that the nuclear power plants’ operations have no negative impact on their surrounding environment.
“The radioactive conditions around these nuclear power plants have been thoroughly measured and analyzed, which put an end to the absence of airborne monitoring data about radiation levels in our country’s nuclear power units,” said Liang Chunli. –The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item