China says Daya Bay nuclear radiation within normal levels

The Chinese government announced that radiation levels from the Daya Bay Nuclear Power Station remained normal and poses no threat to human health.

The statement was made  by the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the National Nuclear Safety Administration in response to reports from Hong Kong and overseas media that radioactive tritium was detected in the Daya Bay Nuclear Power Station and had reached one eighth of the inhaling volume limit set by Hong Kong's Department of Health.

The nuclear station is located in Hong Kong's neighboring city Shenzhen.

According to the statement, it is normal and international conduct to release amounts of radioactive tritium within a set limit during the operation of a nuclear power plant.

The ministry said that the "one eighth of the volume limit" claimed in previous media reports could be the result of a calculation made on the false premise that all the released tritium was inhaled by one person.

Monitoring results in the past few years show that gaseous tritium levels released by both the Daya Bay and Ling'ao nuclear power stations were "extremely minute" and posed no threat to public health, the statement added.