China contains radiation in quake area

PENGZHOU, China - Emergency crews worked Friday to secure 15 sources of radiation buried in the rubble of China's devastating earthquake, the government said as it evacuated thousands of survivors downstream from rivers dammed by landslides.

Officials precariously balanced their efforts to clean up and rebuild with attempts to house, feed and treat the displaced and injured and search for survivors.

One senior official said China faces "a daunting challenge" to prevent environmental contamination from other sources.

There has been no leak of radioactive substances into the environment, Wu Xiaoqing, China's vice minister for environmental protection, told reporters in Beijing.

He said 50 sources of radiation were buried by debris from the massive earthquake in central China, 35 of which had been secured. The rest lay buried or located but unreachable under collapsed buildings. He gave no specifics about the radiation sources.

The number of unsecured sources was far higher than the two the government reported earlier this week. Foreign experts say the radioactive sources likely came from materials used in hospitals, factories or in research, not for weapons.

U.S. State Department spokesman Tom Casey told reporters that Washington was not aware of any threat to humans, "but, obviously, it is a concern."

He added that many of the locations were remote and the U.S. was relying for much of its information on the Chinese government.

Wu cautioned that a number of other "hidden" sources of pollution are likely to be encountered as workers begin digging into the rubble, which includes numerous factories and refineries.

The worst-hit areas in Sichuan province include many high-risk petrochemical and chemical companies, he said. Around three-fourths of the more than 100 chemical plants in the quake-hit area were forced to stop production as a result of damage, he said.

Thirty-four lakes were created in the province when landslides blocked rivers, Xinhua news agency said.

Eight held more than 3 million cubic metres of water and one lake, less than 3km (two miles) from Beichuan town, had doubled in size in four days.

Officials are monitoring the lakes and have sent experts to assess them, the agency said.

Forecasters predict heavy rain in the region next week, which could further raise the water levels in the lakes.