SCIO briefing on 'Nuclear Safety in China' White Paper
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E-mail China.org.cn, September 5, 2019
CNR:
I would like to ask a question regarding public participation. At present, what channels does the public have to access nuclear safety information? In addition, how should the public participate in decision-making involving nuclear safety? Thank you.
Liu Hua:
Thank you. Regarding the participation of the public, we can say that during its development process, nuclear energy has always been plagued by the issue of public participation, which is also known as the problem of not-in-my-backyard (NIMBY). Resolving the NIMBY effect is also a difficult problem in the world and needs to be dealt with in a rational, objective and dialectical way.
On the one hand, public participation reflects the improvement of the public's legal and environmental awareness. On the other hand, it also places higher requirements on our work. Both nuclear enterprises and relevant government departments should strengthen the pre-construction work of nuclear facilities . In the site selection stage and before construction starts, efforts should be made to educate the public more on scientific issues associated with nuclear facilities, release more information to the public and enhance their ability to participate. This should be done to ensure the public's right to know, to participate and to supervise. In addition, the safety status of nuclear facilities in operation should also be disclosed in a timely manner. The Nuclear Safety Law stipulates that the government and enterprises must disclose the safety status of nuclear facilities during the operation process, so we have also made public incidents and accidents in a timely manner through the official government websites. The information can be seen on the official websites of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and the National Nuclear Safety Administration. At the same time, relevant enterprises should also disclose the operation safety status of their facilities in accordance with the law.
