http://www10.antenna.nl/wise/index.html?http://www10.antenna.nl/wise/655/5799.php<snip>
Chinese national uranium mines, most of them located in the less developed western regions, are reported to be causing environmental pollution and health risks to local residents. Cases of radiation poisoning affecting local residents have, for example, been reported from uranium mine No. 792 in Diebu County, Gansu Province. The mine opened in 1967, run by the military, annually milled between 140 and 180 tons of uranium bearing rocks. In 2002, the mine officially was closed down due to ore exhaustion and outdated equipment. However, it continues operation as a private owned mine operated by Longjiang Nuclear Ltd. Since 1988, Sun Xiaodi, a former employee repeatedly travelled to Beijing and met with foreign journalists to make the case public. In early 2005, he was detained by public security forces. He was released later that year, but ever since remains under police surveillance. In 2006 Sun Xiaodi was awarded with the international Nuclear-Free Future Resistance Award. (*5).
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http://www.armscontrolwonk.com/1295/guangyuan-plutonium-production-reactor<snip>
China’s plutonium production reactors may have suffered operating probelms evident to the US intelligence community. Both sets of authors agree that operating histories might result in lower estimates, as Albright and Hinderstein explain:
Total production is therefore estimated as 2-5 tonnes of weapon-grade plutonium. Because of the lack of hard evidence on the production facilities, in particular on the power and operating histories of the reactors, Wright and Gronlund state that their estimates have a high degree of uncertainty.
Wright and Gronlund specifically mention rumors of a “a fire during the 1970s that seriously crippled” one of the reactors.
Declassified U.S. intelligence documents confirm that China’s plutonium production facilities encountered significant technical problems. The declassified report, China: Plutonium Production Reactor Problems (CIA: January 1988), is almost entirely redacted … but the title kind of sez it all, don’t it?
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http://www.tew.org/development/tibet.minerals.html<snip>
The region around Tanjianshan in far northern Tibet supports extensive forests, open grassland and montane steppe. The broad, flat, fertile valleys provide ideal grazing land. These slopes, although cold, are well watered and have been home to Tibetan nomadic herders and their yaks for centuries. The Chinese government considers the area as wasteland. "Not only is this forest and pasture area under threat from the direct impacts of mining, but the Tibetan experience of Chinese mining almost invariably involves severe deforestation of the surrounding area for mine infrastructure and housing," Lafitte said. In addition to the mining activities, Tibetan communities in this region have been displaced by China's plutonium and weapons manufacturing plants nearby in the Gobi desert, and a massive influx of Chinese Muslim settlers financed by the World Bank. These transmigrants, brought to Tibet to increase the Chinese population and to provide labour for other nearby projects, have raised the population density to the limits of the region's carrying capacity. Despite the influx of economic projects, the majority of the benefits will be gained in metropolitan centres distant from Tibet. China has made minimal investments in soft infrastructure for the local Tibetans in terms of health care, education and skills training.
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and there's a reason for the dearth of environmental/worker-safety info for China's nuclear infrastructure....http://www10.antenna.nl/wise/index.html?http://www10.antenna.nl/wise/640/5741.php<snip>
In China, uranium mine employee Sun Xiaodi disappeared at the end of April after reporting contamination from the Gansu No. 792 Uranium Mine in the Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. The organization Human Rights in China (HRIC) fully supports the efforts of Sun Xiaodi's family and friends to ascertain his whereabouts and secure his release. HRIC urges the international community to press the Chinese authorities to conduct an in-depth investigation into Sun's allegations of corruption, severe human health impacts and environmental degradation at the Gansu No. 792 Uranium Mine.
Australia conducted an inquiry into the future role of its uranium industry. While the inquiry was still ongoing, Australia began formal negotiations on uranium exports to China.
China refuses to commit to IAEA inspections of its nuclear power facilities as a condition of buying uranium from Australia, though. China even announced that it wants to explore for uranium in Australia. Meanwhile, Rössing became the first Western producer to export uranium to China (see above).
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glow slaves anyone???
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