Military nuclear facilities safe in quake zone, China says (Roundup)

May 18, 2008, 9:32 GMT

Beijing - Chinese experts have inspected and declared safe the military-use nuclear facilities in the earthquake-devastated south-western province of Sichuan, a military official said Sunday.

'I could say in a responsible manner that all these facilities are safe and secure,' Ma Jian, deputy director of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) combat department, told reporters in Sichuan.

'There is no problem at all,' the official Xinhua news agency quoted Ma as saying in response to a question about top-secret facilities close to Sichuan's quake-hit city of Mianyang.

The nuclear facilities were 'put under strict protection by forces of the armed police and PLA' immediately after the 7.9-magnitude earthquake struck on Monday, it quoted him as saying.

Ma said some facilities were 'only slightly affected,' and that military experts 'conducted a thorough inspection of all the facilities and garrisons involved and found no major damage.'

Several key military facilities related to nuclear research, plutonium production and warhead production are believed to be close to Mianyang, which was one of the worst-hit areas after Monday's earthquake.

International experts believe the military facilities are built to withstand powerful earthquakes, while there are no nuclear power plants in Sichuan.

A report in 2000 by the Federation of American Scientists said that China's main design laboratory for nuclear weapons and more than a dozen subsidiary institutes involved in nuclear research, engineering and related disciplines were located in the Mianyang area.

Monday's earthquake destroyed hundreds of thousands of buildings, killed more than 32,000 people, and left tens of thousands of others buried under rubble or reported missing.

Some five million people in Sichuan were left homeless after the quake, and hundreds of dams and rivers were damaged, bringing the risk of flood to many towns and villages.