Make nuclear safety more open and transparent to the public

On the 16th, Premier Wen Jiabao presided over the executive meeting of the State Council to listen to reports on the nuclear leakage in the nuclear power plant in Fukushima, Japan. The meeting emphasized that we must fully understand the importance and urgency of nuclear safety, and we must put safety first in the development of nuclear power. In addition to requiring comprehensive safety inspections and reviews of nuclear facilities that have already been built and under construction in China, the meeting also requires the preparation of a nuclear safety plan, adjustment and improvement of the mid- and long-term plans for the development of nuclear power. Suspension and approval of nuclear power projects before the approval of nuclear safety planning includes early development. Working project.

These measures of the State Council can be said to be decisive and wise. After the accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan, doing so can greatly ease public anxiety and anxiety.

The accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan once again showed that nuclear safety is a matter of public safety. Drawing lessons from Japan’s nuclear accidents requires not only strengthening the safety supervision of nuclear facilities, perfecting and compiling new nuclear safety plans, but also allowing nuclear safety to go out of mystery and reach the public without precluding ****.

The accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant undoubtedly sounded the alarm for all countries. All countries are reconsidering how nuclear safety under extreme conditions is guaranteed.

On February 18, the Ministry of Environmental Protection issued the “Provisions on Environmental Radiation Protection for Nuclear Power Plants”. It requires that when nuclear power plants, including nuclear power plants, are located, they must consider the environmental characteristics around the sites such as geology and earthquakes in the site, and must consider the natural or man-made external events that may occur in the area where the site is located for nuclear power plants. The impact of security.

In this latest version of the regulations, although the earthquake problem was taken into account, the tsunami factor was not taken into account and there was no detailed explanation for the magnitude of the earthquake. All this shows that it is necessary to improve and compile new nuclear safety plans.

In addition, China's nuclear power construction is now in a new round of climax, the data show that China has put into operation the installed capacity of 10 million kilowatts, the installed capacity under construction has 30 million kilowatts. In recent years, under the pressure of global greenhouse gas emission reduction, relevant departments are even considering raising the goal of nuclear power development in the future. In this regard, the relevant departments must arouse a high degree of vigilance.

On the other hand, since nuclear safety is a matter of public safety, that is, it is related to the life and health of every member of society.

Therefore, each major nuclear leakage incident over the years will trigger panic among the people of all countries and set off a wave of opposition and questioning of nuclear power plants in the international community. For example, both the Netherlands and Italy have announced "abandonment of nuclear". However, for a country as big as China’s economy and energy consumption, there are not many energy options. Reliance on coal for power generation is destined to be long-term, hydropower generation faces enormous environmental pressure, and the cost of wind power and solar power generation remains high, and it is not realistic to abandon nuclear power.

The key question is how to deal with the development of nuclear power and the relationship between energy crisis and public concerns. This first of all requires that the government must further improve its nuclear safety standards and management standards.

Last year, the ***** said at the International Nuclear Security Summit that nuclear power is clean and it must be safe. This means that there should be no luck in the safety of nuclear power. It should also ensure that laws and standards do not distort during implementation and that they are not out of shape. In the four measures of the State Council this time, we repeatedly mentioned "ensure absolute safety" and "use the most advanced standards". What we undoubtedly emphasize is the safety issue in the implementation phase.

Beyond that, it is to let nuclear safety unveil the mystery and move toward the public. This requires both the existence of a nuclear knowledge dissemination mechanism and the need to protect the public’s right to information without involving confidentiality. Of course, we must respect the opinions of local people on issues such as the location of nuclear power plants. If nuclear safety is still kept away from the public, this will only increase public misunderstanding and panic.

Therefore, we expect that the future national nuclear safety planning and nuclear power development plan will give the public more openness and transparency, earnestly pay attention to the public's concerns and doubts, and properly deal with it to ensure the safety of nuclear power is safe.