Mianyang, a city near the epicenter of the earthquake, is home to China’s nuclear weapons research, development and testing labs. The Chinese Academy of Engineering Physics is based there.
Today Xinhua News Agency said 18,000 people in Mianyang were buried in collapsed buildings. The Ministry of Environmental Protection has dispatched a 21-member team to the area, including nuclear safety experts.
The academy, known as CAEP, “is China’s equivalent to our Los Alamos, Sandia, and Lawrence Livermore nuclear laboratories.” That’s from a 2001 presentation by physicist Danny B. Stillman, who between 1990 – 2001 made ten trips to China to visit nuclear weapons facilities, including facilities in Mianyang. Stillman worked for 32 years at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory, and the Nevada Test Site. It would be helpful to know more about what he saw in Mianyang. Unfortunately, last year the CIA blocked the publication of his 500-page manuscript, “Inside China’s Nuclear Weapons Program,” alleging it contained classified information, says the FAS Project on Government Secrecy.
Here are some details about the Institute of Nuclear Physics and Chemistry (INPC), which is located in the mountains a two hour drive from Mianyang. It’s near the town of Dashiba, which is closer to the epicenter. INPC facilities include high-temperature and high-density plasma physics laboratories, a thermal-neutron experimental reactor, a pulsed fast neutron reactor, a high-power laser installation, and various accelerators.
There are no doubt many scientists in the U.S. who have colleagues and friends in Mianyang. If you have contact with them, please let us know.
