PEOPLE should be told more about what will happen if there is a disaster at Daya Bay, according to British nuclear experts visiting the territory. They said such a move was necessary to reduce anxiety now and prevent panic during an accident. The Government should try to secure agreement that the Guangdong authorities would tell them of more types of accidents at the Chinese nuclear power station, and press for a joint exercise of communications links, the experts told the Legislative Council environmental affairs panel meeting yesterday. Principal assistant secretary for planning Andrew Kluth said afterwards that the Government ''would have to consider'' how it could step up publicity of its contingency plan. Public meetings and leaflets sent direct to households - common practice in other countries - were possibilities, he said. Chris Willby, chief inspector with British Government watchdog the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate, said: ''I cannot stress too highly the importance of keeping the public informed.'' And during an accident, he said: ''People should be told as much as [the Government] possibly knows'', including diagrams showing the time of the accident, direction of radioactive fall-out and what effects the Government expected. ''The more open you are, the better,'' he said. He and Frances Fry, assistant director with the British statutory body the National Radiological Protection Board, had visited the Daya Bay plant on Thursday and found it ''compared favourably'' with the best nuclear stations around the world. He praised the Government's 20-kilometre evacuation or sheltering zone, that covers Ping Chau and Mirs Bay, saying that ''no other country in the world would be planning to protect people so far away'' from the plant. He admitted that people throughout Hong Kong could avoid tiny doses of radiation during a disaster by sheltering indoors, but he said this might cause more panic and injuries than the disaster. Hong Kong's biggest problem would be monitoring food being imported across the border and within the territory, but the visitors were satisfied that preparations were adequate. The Government had ordered additional monitoring equipment worth $34 million, which it expected by the end of the year, said Mr Kluth. Independent legislator Vincent Cheng Hoi-chuen asked the experts whether having two nuclear plants close to each other would increase the probability of an accident. In February the Guangdong authorities announced they had the go-ahead to build a second plant five kilometres from Daya Bay at Lingao. Mr Willby said there could be safety advantages in building two nuclear plants close together, and it was a common practice in Britain. ''You get what we call a symbiotic effect, that one assists the other,'' he said. ''It makes sense to concentrate your facilities from a staff training, a staff development and a sharing of experience point of view, rather than communicate across thousands of kilometres.'' The Hong Kong Government was drawing up proposals for more talks on notification of on-site accidents by the Guangdong authorities, said Mr Kluth. The Chinese have agreed to notify the territory of accidents leading to a release of radiation beyond the site and some accidents that might lead to such a release. However, legislator the Reverend Fung Chi-wood said afterwards he was ''disappointed'' that the visitors had not given more recommendations for improvements of the contingency plan. ''This was not meant to be a PR exercise,'' he said. ''It seems that to them the plan is perfect, but this is plainly not the case. We need technical advice.''
