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Daya bay born into controversy

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The Daya Bay nuclear power station is not only China's oldest and largest but probably its most controversial, thanks to its location 50km from Tsim Sha Tsui.

In 1986, Jiang Xinxiong, then the minister of nuclear industry, rejected a one-million-signature petition from Hong Kong protesting at the plant plans because of safety fears. The original target date for operation, set at 1991, was then pushed back more than three years. Work was halted temporarily in 1987 over a construction fault.

Although Hong Kong has been spared a Chernobyl-style disaster, the original fears appeared to be vindicated when, in 2001, state media quoted Daya Bay officials as proclaiming that Daya Bay had been operating safely for 1,000 consecutive days, despite the fact that operations began seven years earlier.

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