An investigation led by CNN, a US news network, revealed that China has taken dangerous measures to deal with a report on a leak at the nuclear power plant "Taishan", which is co-owned and operated by a French company.
The French company said that the Chinese safety authority "has raised the acceptable limits for radiation detection outside the plant in order to avoid having to close it," according to a letter sent from the company to the US State Department, a copy of which was obtained by CNN.
The letter included a warning of an "imminent radioactive threat" about the station.
On Monday, the company that operates the plant near Hong Kong said it was dealing with a "performance issue", but was now operating within safety limits, following a report of a possible radiation leak.
The Taishan nuclear power plant is jointly owned by the Chinese "Guangdong Nuclear Energy Group" and the French multinational Electricity de France "Electricity de France", the main owner of "Framatum", which helps operate the plant.
But one of the sources told CNN that "despite the alarming notification from the French company, the administration of US President Joe Biden believes that the facility has not yet reached the crisis level."
While US officials have deemed the situation not currently posing a serious safety threat to workers in the factory or residents of nearby areas, it is unusual for a foreign company to unilaterally reach out to the US government for assistance when its Chinese state-owned partner has not yet acknowledged a problem.
For its part, the Chinese authorities denied the allegations of the American channel CNN about the existence of a radioactive threat in one of its nuclear reactors, according to what the American Bloomberg Agency said.
The General Nuclear Energy Corporation of China said that environmental indicators in and around the Taishan reactor are normal after CNN reported that a French company had warned of an imminent radioactive threat there.
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