NW China province to build radiation monitoring stations

LANZHOU, May 19 (Xinhua) -- Northwest China's Gansu province, home to the country's earliest nuclear base, plans to build more than 30 radiation monitoring stations in the following five years, local authorities announced on Saturday.

The province will invest 30 million yuan (4.7 million U.S. dollars) in setting up the stations in 14 cities and prefectures and also in areas with sources of radioactivity including uranium mining and metallurgy and nuclear facilities, according to the local government's nuclear and radiation safety bureau.

Gansu has already established three automatic radiation monitoring stations in the cities of Lanzhou, Jiayuguan and Jinchang in the past five years. They contributed greatly in emergency monitoring during the Fukushima nuclear disaster, and have been providing accurate data on local radiation levels.

Gansu now has nearly 2,900 radioactive sources, more than 1,000 radioactive facilities and rapidly increasing exposure to electromagnetic radiation.