Source: International Campaign for Tibet

From: World Tibet Network News, Tuesday, August 15, 1995

WASHINGTON, D.C., August 8 (ICT)-- For the first time, China has admitted to the existence of nuclear waste on the Tibetan plateau. An official Xinhua new report, published on July 19, said there is a "20 sq.m. dump for radioactive pollutants" in Haibei Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture near the shores of lake Kokonor, the largest lake on the Tibetan Plateau.

The report claimed that there military nuclear weapon facility which produced the waste had maintained an "excellent" safety record during its 30 years of operation, and that there had not been "any harm to the environment" and "no one at the base ever died of radiation."

The report did not give details as to how the nuclear waste was initially contained and how it is currently being maintained. It did say that 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," according to You Deliang, spokesman for the China Nuclear Industry Corporation.

A 1993 report, "Nuclear Tibet," released by the International Campaign for Tibet documented reports by a local Tibetan doctor of abnormally high rates of diseases in the nearby towns of Reshui and Ganzihe. The doctor also treated the children of nomads who grazed their animals adjacent to the nuclear base, 7 of whom died of cancer over a 5 year period. The doctor was unable to pursue inquiries to determine the likelihood of a connection to the nuclear base.

The nuclear base, known as the "Ninth Academy" or "Factory 211" was China's primary nuclear weapons research and production facility which produced all of China's early nuclear weapons. ICT's report, "Nuclear Tibet," provided the first public in-depth account of the facility, and concluded that while the nature and quantity of the nuclear waste was unclear, its existence was undeniable.

The decision to locate the facility on the Tibetan plateau was made by Li Jue, who had been a deputy commander and chief of staff of the Tibet Military Region in the years following the invasion of Tibet. The earliest known reference to the facility in the West was in a 1966 Central Intelligence Agency report which referred to a "Koko Nor nuclear weapons center." Even though the Chinese government is now publicly acknowledging the existence and role of the facility, the CIA told ICT that the existence of records pertaining the facility remains classified.

The Xinhua article said that the nuclear base, which used to have 1,170 sq. km. of forbidden zone, only appeared as grassland on ordinary maps. Ironically, the nuclear weapons facility happened to be decommissioned in 1987, the year the Dalai Lama called upon China to make Tibet a nuclear free zone in the Five Point Peace Plan which the Dalai Lama announced in Washington D.C. Today, the base is the world's first retired research and production base for nuclear weapons, according the Xinhua report. The base was moved to sites in Sichuan Province, where it would be more protected from Soviet attack. Nuclear missiles remain stationed on the Tibetan plateau at least three sties - Delingha, Da Qaidam and Xiao Qaidam - west of Lake Kokonor.