(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-12-07 16:30

BEIJING -- A planned nuclear power plant in east China has generated controversy among local residents who allege the facility will mar the beauty of a coastal area and pose a potential environmental threat.

The Rushan Nuclear Power Plant, which is designed to include six megawatt generation units, is scheduled to be operational by 2015. Its planned location southeast of Shandong Peninsula in the Yellow Sea, however, is at the center of the controversy as it is only a few kilometers away from a popular holiday resort.

The Yintan National Tourism Resort, dubbed the "Oriental Hawaii" for  its picturesque scenery, is home to more than 100,000 permanent residents.The number triples in summer when Beijing and Tianjin residents flock to their seaside holiday homes in the region.

Residents have voiced concern over the planned nuclear power plant since 2005 when the Shandong Provincial Government unveiled the plan.

"It's very ridiculous for the government to have decided to build a nuclear power plant in such a densely-populated area with such beautiful seascape," said netizen "Monica" on the on-line forum "No Nuclear in Yintan", which attracts more than 1,000 local visitors regularly.

According to the initiator of the forum, a local resident and law professor surnamed Wu, the Rushan Nuclear Power Plant is "only five kilometers from Yintan and zero kilometers from the sea".

What has made local residents even more worried is that there are three planned nuclear power plants along the province's 120-kilometer coastline.

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