Strengthen Flood Season Self-Inspection and Prevention, Safeguard Radiation Safety of Radioactive Waste Storage

As the southwestern region enters the main flood season, multiple rounds of heavy rainfall have frequently occurred across Sichuan, Chongqing, Yunnan, and Guizhou, with continuously escalating risks of flooding and waterlogging backflow, putting the radiation safety of urban radioactive waste temporary storage facilities to the test. The Ministry of Ecology and Environment's Southwest Regional Office of Nuclear and Radiation Safety Supervision (hereinafter referred to as the Southwest Office) has focused on advance warning and source prevention, urging urban radioactive waste temporary storage facilities in the southwestern region (hereinafter referred to as waste storage facilities) to conduct flood season self-inspections and proactively identify and rectify safety hazards through on-site inspections, online coordination, and work reminders.

The Southwest Office has adhered to early planning, early deployment, and early action, conducting special pre-flood-season studies to arrange flood prevention work and urging all waste storage facilities to firmly establish bottom-line and extreme thinking while continuously improving flood prevention management mechanisms. First, focusing on source prevention, it has carried out routine hazard self-inspections, established problem ledgers, and implemented closed-loop management covering detection, rectification, and closure; second, focusing on emergency support, it has improved flood season response mechanisms and fully equipped flood prevention materials; third, focusing on long-term improvement, it has conducted timely post-flood reviews and summaries, promoting the institutionalization and normalization of flood prevention self-inspection measures and their deep integration into routine safety management systems.

Taking into account the geological and climatic differences across the southwestern region, the Southwest Office has issued flood prevention work reminders to waste storage facilities in Chongqing, Sichuan, Yunnan, and Guizhou, highlighting key points for flood prevention self-inspections in storage areas. First, self-inspection of external flood control facilities, including item-by-item checks on the smoothness and integrity of flood interception ditches, drainage pipe networks, and water-retaining slope protections, with advance dredging of silted points to strictly prevent mountain torrents and rainwater backflow; second, self-inspection of in-storage safety, including checks on the impermeability and waterproofing conditions of storage buildings, alongside verification of the operational status of radiation environment monitoring and video surveillance systems, to ensure the safe and controllable storage of radioactive waste.

Going forward, the Southwest Office will continue to strengthen flood season reminders and coordination, closely monitor rainfall dynamics, track the self-inspection and rectification progress of all waste storage facilities, strictly implement the requirement of "better to prepare ten times and face no disaster than to be caught off guard once," and promote the building of a solid radiation safety barrier at waste storage facilities through routine supervision, making every effort to safeguard the nuclear and radiation safety bottom line within its jurisdiction.