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Following is a question by the Hon Cyd Ho Sau Lan and a written reply by the Secretary for the Environment, Mr Edward Yau, at the Legislative Council meeting today (June 30):
Question:
It has been reported that the CLP Power Hong Kong Limited (CLP) is now negotiating with the China Guangdong Nuclear Power Holding Corporation on the construction of a new nuclear power facility, so as to increase the proportion of electricity generated by nuclear energy, which currently accounts for 20% of local electricity supply. Yet, the incident on May 23 this year of a small increase in radioactivity in the reactor cooling water at Unit 2 of the Daya Bay Nuclear Power Plant, which was not uncovered until two weeks after its occurrence, has once again cast doubt on the safety of nuclear electricity and the effectiveness of the incident reporting system. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) whether the authorities have got hold of the incident records, such as radioactive leaks, operational accidents and irregularities, etc, since the commissioning of the Daya Bay Nuclear Power Plant; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;
(b) whether the Scheme of Control Agreements signed between the authorities and the power companies include provisions to ensure safe disposal of nuclear wastes when the power companies participate in investment and operation of any nuclear power company inside or outside Hong Kong; if so, of the details; if not, whether the authorities will consider incorporating the disposal of nuclear wastes into the Scheme of Control Agreements;
(c) whether the authorities had stipulated how the radioactivity in the surrounding area where nuclear wastes were stored and the cancer incidence rate of residents in the vicinity should be monitored when they granted approval to CLP in 2009 to extend the contract for the supply of nuclear electricity from the Daya Bay Nuclear Power Station for another term of 20 years with effect from May 7, 2014; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;
(d) whether the SAR Government has, after the Memorandum of Understanding signed with the National Energy Administration in August 2008 to ensure a continuous supply of nuclear electricity and natural gas to Hong Kong, conducted any studies on the projects of West-East Natural Gas Pipeline and the joint venture of constructing natural gas receiving terminals on the Mainland for supplying gas to Hong Kong (including studying the extent to which nuclear electricity can be replaced by electricity from natural gas); if it has, of the details; if not; the reasons for that; and
(e) whether the authorities had, in the past five years, assessed the merits and demerits of developing, in collaboration with the Guangdong Province, the two means of electricity generation, namely renewable energy and nuclear energy; if they had not, of the reasons for that; if they had, of the detailed assessment results?
Reply:
President,
(a) Since the commissioning of Daya Bay Nuclear Power Plant (DBNPP), there has not been any report of nuclear leakage or "nuclear accidents" as defined under the "International Nuclear Event Scale".
(b) and (c) The handling of nuclear wastes generated by nuclear power plants, including their disposal, is under strict monitoring and supervision of the relevant authorities in accordance with the national safety regulations. In the case of the nuclear plants in the Mainland, their operation is overseen by the National Nuclear Safety Administration. The HKSAR Government has put in place a Daya Bay Contingency Plan under which the Security Bureau is responsible to direct and coordinate the HKSAR Government's response. In addition, the Hong Kong Observatory (HKO) has set up a Radiation Monitoring Network consisting of ten radiation monitoring stations to monitor environmental radiation levels. The HKO also runs a comprehensive environmental radiation monitoring programme which includes measuring radioactivity levels of samples taken from various locations and sources in Hong Kong including water and air. Since the commissioning of DBNPP, neither the monitoring stations nor the environmental samples monitored have registered any detectable change that is related to DBNPP.
(d) and (e) Following the conclusion of the Memorandum of Understanding on Energy Co-operation with the National Energy Administration in August 2008, the Government and relevant energy enterprises on both sides have been working together to take forward the planning and development of the gas pipelines and the liquefied natural gas terminal in accordance with the relevant planning, regulatory and environmental regimes of the respective jurisdictions. It is also the Government's policy since 1997 that no new coal-fired generation units will be allowed for environmental reasons. Accordingly, demand for new electricity generation units or additional electricity demand will have to be met by fuel sources which will have lower pollutant emissions and lower carbon footprint. Given the keen competition regionally and internationally for fuel for power generation, we have to explore all potential sources of clean and low carbon energy for stable, reliable and continuous supply to meet the electricity demand of Hong Kong and to reduce carbon footprint of the city to combat climate change.
In the Framework Agreement on Hong Kong/Guangdong Co-operation, the governments of Guangdong and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region agreed to jointly study the regional development strategy of cleaner energy and renewable energy (RE), and to encourage their wider use and research.
To encourage the research and development of RE, the HKSAR Government and the Shenzhen Municipal Government launched the first major technology co-operation project under the "Shenzhen Hong Kong Innovation Circle" to establish a Solar Energy Research and Industrial Platform in collaboration with DuPont. The DuPont Apollo Global Thin Film Photovoltaic Business Headquarters and Research and Development Centre in Hong Kong was opened in March 2009 and its production facilities in Shenzhen are now in operation.
In addition, the HKSAR Government established the Guangdong-Hong Kong Technology Co-operation Funding Scheme in 2004 to encourage universities, research institutes and companies of both sides to carry out co-operation projects of technology research, including projects on RE. Currently, Guangdong and Hong Kong are jointly funding a number of RE research projects, such as application of high efficiency and cost effective solar cells, and investigation and development of large scale grid connected thin film photovoltaic power stations integrated with buildings.
Ends/Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Issued at HKT 12:35
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