China's environmental watchdog to spend 23 mln USD to ensure nuke safety

China's environmental regulator will spend 150 million yuan (about 23.08 million U.S. dollars) on nuclear and radiation safety supervision and control, as well as in offering relevant technical support this year in an effort to ensure nuclear safety.

The Ministry of Environmental Protection said in a budgetary report for 2011 on its website that the ministry's total budgetary expenditure is about 1.92 billion yuan this year, of which, 1.12 billion yuan will be used to carry out 61 environmental protection projects.

Among the major projects listed, the ministry will use 100 million yuan for tasks including nuclear and radiation safety monitoring, radioactive environment monitoring across the country, and electromagnetic radiation at key facilities, and offering technical support for supervising civilian nuclear facilities, the report said.

Another 50 million yuan will be used to assess technologies in ensuring safety of nuclear works, according to the report.

The ministry's budgetary report last year did not include nuclear safety projects.

The ministry also planned to allocate 220 million yuan this year for ensuring its environment monitoring and information gathering network runs smoothly.

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