OFFICIALS recommended sheltering for people more than 20 kilometres from Daya Bay during a test of plans for dealing with a disaster at the nuclear plant, it has emerged.
But Security Branch assistant principal secretary for contingency planning, Andrew Kluth, said the move was an ''over-reaction'' by staff who were deliberately being tested in an ''unrealistic'' situation.
However, he refused to release the government report of the exercise, saying its rough-and-ready nature made it ''open to ambiguity and misinterpretation''.
The Government has said that only people within 20 km of the plant - covering the northeast island of Ping Chau and part of Mirs Bay - would need to shelter or be evacuated in the worst accident at the Chinese power station, which is about 60 km from Central.
Legislators have asked to see the government report of the extensive exercise, performed in May 1993 and involving all levels of Government including the Governor, following concerns raised this month that it showed the Government would not be able to cope with an emergency.
During the two-day exercise, officials were given conflicting information about radiation levels in the territory, particularly from the Royal Observatory meter at Sha Tau Kok on the border in the far northeast of the New Territories.
Mr Kluth could not say what areas were considered for sheltering. But any radiation reaching Sha Tau Kok, which is 35 km southwest of Daya Bay, would be likely to have passed over several villages nearer to the nuclear plant which do not fall within the 20 km evacuation zone.
