CHINA has ordered its atomic weapons industry to be ready for an “environmental emergency” after last week’s earthquake struck nuclear weapons storage and research facilities. Officials have also dispatched a team of 21 experts to inspect sites.

The announcement followed growing international concern over the safety of nuclear installations in the earthquake zone. China stores some of its vast arsenal of warheads in Sichuan province, which is also home to several reactors and two plutonium plants. Last week a French nuclear monitoring agency claimed a number of Chinese nuclear sites had suffered minor damage in the quake, but praised China for taking precautionary measures.

China had reported “light damage” but had “reacted well” by immediately shutting down nuclear sites for inspection, said Thierry Charles, plant safety director of the French Institute for Radiological Protection The damage had mainly affected older plants that were in the process of being decommissioned, he said. These had been built before earthquake-proof construction standards were introduced.

China’s announcement of contingency plans was aimed at reassuring the international community, which had expressed concern over secrecy about nuclear sites in the area. They include the country’s largest storage facility for nuclear warheads, hidden in underground bunkers, and Plant 821, a warhead assembly site that houses one of China’s largest reactors.

The plant is close to Guangyuan, a city where buildings were damaged last week. China’s leading nuclear weapons laboratory, the South West Institute, is based in Mianyang, where the quake killed at least 7,000 and 1,400 remain missing.

Dr Anupam Srivastava, director of the University of Georgia’s Asia programme and a nuclear consultant, said there was as yet no evidence that the earthquake had caused any leak of radioactive material, but he cautioned: “There is the issue of storage and safety, whether any damage might have been done which might create a problem for the stockpile.”

China’s Nuclear and Radiation Safety Centre has put all its emergency staff on alert in readiness for a nuclear leak.

Times Recommends

• LA profits from Michael Jackson stimulus
• Berlusconi's absent wife causes G8 headache
• Chimps that took a punishing step for Man