Under the leadership of the State Council, China has made headway in the field of nuclear emergency response in recent years, which can be summarized as follows:

(1) Successfully and effectively arranging the appropriate responses to several types of important emergencies, including the response to a potential nuclear safety hazard arising from Wenchuan earthquake in 2008; the response to the effects of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant accident in 2011 (the accident exerted a great influence on society, to which the responding actions -- lasting 100 days -- played an important role in ensuring national social stability); the response to the third North Korean nuclear test during this year's Spring Festival, which has made positive contributions to the assurance of nuclear facility safety, correct media guidance and social stability (not disclosed to the public).

(2) Improving China's system of a nuclear emergency contingency plan. On the basis of the "China Nuclear Emergency Contingency Plan" promulgated by the State Council, a three-level emergency contingency plan system has taken initial shape at the levels of national and coordination committees' member agencies preplanning, provincial preplanning and that of ongoing agencies affiliated with nuclear facilities.

(3) Emphasizing the reinforcement of China's nuclear emergency capacity. On the one hand, the member agencies of the coordination committees, including the army, construct emergency capacity in accordance with their respective functions and duties; on the other hand, the Defense Science, Technology and Industry Bureau earmarked 1 billion yuan (US$162.6 million) in funds from military industrial infrastructure projects to build four national technological support centers of nuclear emergency, six emergency rescue units and 11 nuclear emergency infrastructure constructions of military industrial agencies.

(4) Actively pushing forward the treatment of hidden defects. After the Wenchuan earthquake, with the support and direct supervision of the State Council leadership, central authorities planned to invest 24.3 billion yuan (US$3.95 billion) in remedial actions related to decommission and radioactive waste treatment. At present, all projects are underway.

(5) Attaching importance to nuclear emergency response drills. The first national nuclear emergency response exercise --Shendun -- was successfully staged in 2009. Over the years, more than 300 exercises have been organized, coordinated and guided at the levels of both province and facility.

(6) 24 member agencies of China's Nuclear Emergency Coordination Committee make new progress in nuclear emergency response capacity building, organizational structuring, contingency construction and the construction of a standard emergency system.

(7) The provincial, municipal and district's nuclear emergency response system has made rapid progress. 16 provinces have set up nuclear emergency response committees and related agencies, and the capacity building, contingency plan building and the construction of a technical support system are now well-developed.

(8) The nuclear emergency response system of current nuclear facility agencies, including higher level group corporations and research institutes, has been strengthened in an all-round way, laying a solid foundation for the assurance of nuclear facility safety and the adhering effective accident emergency response.

(9) Strenuous efforts to foster international cooperation and exchange in the field of nuclear emergency response. China's nuclear emergency response policy is actively publicized within the international community and China's image of a responsible big country has been shown through the multilateral system of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and bilateral mechanisms with other countries.

(10) Formulating and implementing the"12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015) on National Nuclear Emergency." Last April, Miao Wei, chairman of China's Nuclear Emergency Coordination Committee and Minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People's Republic of China, presided the second plenary session of the fifth congress of China's Nuclear Emergency Coordination Committee, where arrangements and plans were made for the country's nuclear emergency response system at the time and for the time to come, in particular adopting the "12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015) of National Nuclear Emergency" and proposing over 20 major tasks in five aspects that needed to be fulfilled during the 12th Five-year Plan period (2011-2015). The meeting and adopted planning are of great significance to the preparations in China's nuclear emergency response system.

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