Source: Xinhua news agency, Beijing, in English 0844 gmt 19Jul 95

BBC SWB 20 July 1995

Xining 19th July: About l03 km west of this capital of northwest China's Qinghai Province lies a gigantic gray monument with a ball-like object resembling a bomb glittering on top. It is the site of China's first nuclear weapons research and production centre, which was permanently decommissioned in 1987. Although the area was handed over to the Haibei Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture as its capital city two years ago, the once-mysterious area, which had been a forbidden zone under the code name "Factory 221" for some 30 years, has become a bustling town attracting some 5.000 new households from other parts of the prefreture in only two years.

The old nuclear base is now decorated with hundreds of thousands of trees planted by nuclear scientists and workers. Cattle and sheep are seen feeding in the green pasture around the town. New factories, rows of multi-storey apartment buildings and recreational centres are springing up.

A product of China's strategic shift of its nuclear industry from military to civilian production, the base, which used to have 1,170 sq.km. of forbidden zone, only appeared as grassland on ordinary maps. By the side of the large foundry, dozens of electrolysis troughs and transformers were replaced with a new electrolytic aluminium plant. Dozens of apartment buildings and public facilities like cinemas, shopping centres and hospitals either remain as before or have been redecorated. The Generals' Mansion", once the residence of a few leading nuclear scientists like Zhang Aiping who later became National Defence Minister, have been turned into flats for ordinary people in Haibei Prefecture.

In the centre of the city a sports centre and a sculpture of yaks, symbols of luck among the local people, are being erected. Green grass grows over the 20 sq.m. dump for radioactive pollutants. Outsiders have been attracted to the town, as the area has a well-developed infrastructure and reliable ecological environment thanks to years of environmental construction," said Zholma, Communist Party secretary of the prefecture. The local party official said that the base had maintained an excellent safety record during its 30 years of operation, without any harm to the environment. "No one at the base ever died of radiation," he recalled.

The radiation count for local residents is only 0.1 per cent of the national standard, according to the long-term monitoring results. Over 80 healthy babies have been born in this town 3,200 m above sea level. The Chinese government spent a large amount of money from 1989 to 1993 to strictly supervise the environmental conditions of the retired nuclear weapon base, said You Deliang, spokesman for the China Nuclear Industry Corporation.

As the world's first retired research and production base for nuclear weapons, You said, it has worked out a well-conceived plan for environmental protection by scientists. As a result, Haibei Prefecture moved its capital from Menynan County to the site of the retired nuclear plant only one month after the area passed a state examination in June, 1993. "Atom Bomb City" has since been serving the economic prosperity of local people.

The retirement of the nuclear weapons production base embodies the long standing principle of the Chinese government to thoroughly prohibit and dismantle all nuclear weapons, and the successful handover of the nuclear weapons production base demonstrates China's effective handling of a radioactive environment, the senior engineer noted.

Forwarded by: Tseten Samdup