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.
