This post is from May 2008. Facts and links may have changed since. See more from that month

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Earthquake Update

Mark Hibbs, writing in Nucleonics Week (subscription required), points out that that damage to China’s nuclear weapons facilities was slight:

According to local sources, the China Academy of Engineering Physics, CAEP, located in Mianyang, close to the epicenter of the earthquake, was not significantly damaged but six personnel were injured. CAEP is responsible for nuclear weapons production as well as for R&D aspects of China’s nuclear weapons program.

The production reactor and plutonium separation plant at Guangyuan, also located in Sichuan, were shuttered when the earthquake occurred, contrary to some foreign media reports last week, Beijing officials said. The complex, designed to withstand seismic events, was not damaged, they said.

That is consistent with what I, and others, have heard. A colleague sent along pictures of his apartment; it looked like Led Zepplin had stayed the night.

Update: I failed to mention that Mark’s good work leaves me relieved that my semi-informed guess to Bill Broad, “I wouldn’t be surprised if, by and large, they came through pretty well,”, appears to be holding up, so far.

Jeffrey Lewis

Writing on ACW 2004–2026

Dr. Jeffrey Lewis is the founding publisher of Arms Control Wonk.com. He is the Director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. His also a non-resident affiliate at Stanford's Center for Security and International Cooperation and a Contributing Editor to Survival.

All posts by Jeffrey Lewis