17/09/2019
- Hangzhou subway operator says water seeped into underground construction site
- Zhejiang’s capital was scene of subway collapse that claimed 21 workers’ lives in 2008
A yellow cloud engulfs buildings after a subway tunnel in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, collapses. Photo: Pear Video
Homes in a major city in eastern China were evacuated on Wednesday after water seepage at a subway construction site caused a main road to cave in and cut a gas main.
Authorities in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, said dozens of residents feared for their homes as buildings cracked and swayed from the cave-in.
Videos posted to the Weibo microblogging network showed yellow smoke engulfing the neighbourhood as the road fell below street level. Authorities said Hangzhou’s gas supplier managed to close off the mains.
Hangzhou Metro Group, the city’s subway operator and the company overseeing the network’s expansion from four lines to nine for the 2022 Asian Games, said on Weibo that water seeped into a tunnel that connected two stations in the centre of the city, leading to the collapse.
The collapse took down a four-lane road in central Hangzhou. Photo: Pear Video
That caused a hole under the carriageway and took the pavement down with it. Hangzhou Metro said homes around the site were cleared and authorities were monitoring for further danger.
It was not known how many residents were affected, but no casualties were reported.
Most residents were put up in a nearby school until accommodation could be arranged, the City Express newspaper reported, adding that several truckloads of cement were poured into the hole.
Eight Chinese killed as road collapses near subway construction project
The road collapse in central Hangzhou was the latest in a series of subway construction accidents there – some of them deadly – in the past decade as China races to expand its urban rail networks.
In November 2008, 21 workers were killed and 24 were injured when a tunnel Hangzhou’s Line 1 collapsed beneath an eight-lane road and river water rushed in. A court sent eight people to jail for terms of between three and 5½ years for negligence at the site.
Two years later at the same place, a truck driver died and another was injured as a pit collapsed.
In 2016, four construction workers were killed when mud flooded a pit at a station on Line 4.
In 2008, an eight-lane riverside road in Hangzhou fell in on workers building a subway tunnel, killing 21. Photo: AFP
A cave-in similar to Wednesday’s collapse overturned a truck at a construction site near Hangzhou railway station this month, but no one was injured, Hangzhou Metro said.
According to the China Association of Metros, by the end of last year, more than 5,700km (3,540 miles) of urban railway had been built in 35 mainland cities, of which more than a third – 2,100km – was completed since 2015.
Source: SCMP
Posted in Asian Games, capital, China alert, China Association of Metros, City Express, collapses, construction site, flee, Hangzhou, Hangzhou Metro Group, homes, mainland cities, residents, subway operator, subway tunnel\, Uncategorized, underground, urban rail networks, urban railway, water seeped, Weibo, zhejiang province |
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10/09/2019
- Residents evacuated from building in Shenzhen as it leans to one side
- An investigation is launched and utilities in the area are cut off
The building leans to one side after apparently sinking into the ground. Photo: Weibo
Emergency workers sealed off a building in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen after it collapsed on Wednesday morning, local authorities said.
At around 11.20am, a block of flats in Luohu district suddenly sank into the ground and leaned to one side, the Shenzhen government said on Weibo, China’s equivalent of Twitter.
“Before it happened, the local community office heard noises coming from underground, and evacuated residents. Right now there are no casualties,” the Weibo post said. “The case is being investigated.”
In a short video published by state broadcaster CCTV, a residential building appears to have sunk into the ground and leans on the neighbouring building, with bricks and concrete strewn on the ground.
The area was closed off as police, ambulance crews and firefighters attended the scene.
The authorities also evacuated residents from surrounding buildings, moving them into temporary housing. A panel of experts began to investigate the cause of the collapse, while water, gas and electricity supplies were cut off in the area and construction work was halted as a precaution.
Earlier this month, a stadium in Shenzhen collapsed while demolition work was being carried out, killing three workers and injuring three. The part of the venue that collapsed had previously been used as a basketball court but was being renovated, with most of the interior having been torn down apart from a few pillars supporting the roof.
Source: SCMP
Posted in ambulance crews, authorities, basketball court, Block of flats, Building, casualties, collapses, construction work, demolition, Electricity, Emergency workers, evacuated, evacuated residents, firefighters, gas, halted, injuring, interior, investigation, killing, Luohu district, pillars, Police, precaution, renovated, residential building, residents, Roof, sealed, Shenzhen, sinking into ground, stadium, state broadcaster CCTV, Twitter, Uncategorized, underground, utilities, venue, water, Weibo |
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05/09/2019
- Researchers will conduct tests at site in Gansu to see whether it will make a viable facility to store highly radioactive waste safely
- Scientists say China has the chance to become a world leader in this field but has to find a way to ensure it does not leak
A preliminary design for the Beishan Underground Research Laboratory. Photo: Handout
China has chosen a site for an underground laboratory to research the disposal of highly radioactive waste, the country’s nuclear safety watchdog said on Wednesday.
Officials said work will soon begin on building the Beishan Underground Research Laboratory 400 metres underground in the northwestern province of Gansu.
Liu Hua, the head of the Chinese National Nuclear Safety Administration, said work would be carried out to determine whether it would be possible to build a repository for high-level nuclear waste deep underground.
“China sees radioactive waste disposal as a very important part [of the development nuclear energy],” said Liu. “To develop nuclear energy, we must have safe storage and disposal of nuclear waste.”
China condemns US blacklisting of nuclear firms and says American companies could be hurt as a result
The Chinese authorities see nuclear power an important source of energy that will help to curb carbon emissions and pollution as well as reducing its dependence on fuel imports.
But while the country has made great strides in the development of nuclear power, it needs to find a safe and reliable way of dealing with its growing stockpiles of nuclear waste.
Liu said the Gansu site had been identified as a possible location for a deep nuclear waste store after years of searching.
Once the laboratory is built, scientists and engineers will start experiments to confirm whether it will make a viable underground storage facility.
“Based on the data of the experiments, we can then decide if we are going to pick this as the final site,” he added.
China ‘actively promoting’ nuclear fuel processing plant with French Areva
Chinese officials usually stay tight-lipped about how nuclear waste is disposed of mainly because of fears that any discussion of the topic would trigger safety fears, although in recent years more efforts have been made to inform the public to win support.
Scientists say that nuclear waste can be divided into three categories depending on the level of radioactivity.
Low-level waste consists of minimally radioactive materials such as mop heads, rags, or protective clothing used in nuclear plants, while intermediate-level waste covers things such as filters and used reactor components.
High-level waste, however, is generated by the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel and scientists generally agree that the safest way to dispose of it is to bury it deep underground in areas where the geology means it will have a minimal impact on the environment while it decays over thousands of years.
The facility will be built in a remote part of Gansu province. Photo: Handout
Some Chinese scientists said the country had the chance to lead the world in this area of research but others have expressed concerns about safety.
Jiang Kejun, a senior researcher at the Energy Research Institute of China’s National Development and Reform Commission, said that very few countries in the world are studying this form of nuclear waste disposal.
“It gives China an opportunity to be a leader in research in this area, plus China has the technology and financial means,” he said.
About a dozen countries including France, Switzerland, Japan, and the United States have carried out research in this area, but in recent years most have abandoned or scaled back their programmes.
At present there are storage sites operating in Finland and the US, but other countries such as Germany have abandoned plans to build similar facilities.
Washington blacklists Chinese nuclear firms for ‘helping military acquire US technology’
But despite broad scientific support for underground disposal, some analysts and many members of the public remain sceptical about whether it is really safe.
Lei Yian, an associate professor at the School of Physics at Peking University, said there was no absolute guarantee that the repositories would be safe when they are come into operation.
“Leakage has happened in [repositories] in the US and the former Soviet Union … it’s a difficult problem worldwide,” he said. “If China can solve it, then it will have solved a global problem.”
China is also building more facilities to dispose of low and intermediate level waste. Officials said new plants were being built in Zhenjiang, Fujian and Shandong, three coastal provinces that currently lack disposal facilities.
At present, two disposal sites for low and intermediate-level waste are in operation in Gansu and Guangdong provinces.
Source: SCMP
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