U.S. funding nuclear plant in China

Human Events, May 21, 2001 by Carney, Timothy P

The cash from both Export-Import Bank loans was deposited in the PRC's State Development Bank, which handed the money over to the state-owned CNNP in the case of Qinshan Ill, and to the China Nuclear Energy Industry Corp. for Qinshan II.

In approving the Bechtel loan, Clinton disregarded an August 1995 "discovery" issued by his own administration revealing that the CNNP had recently sold ring magnets to Pakistan. Ring magnets are a component needed for enriching uranium so that it can be used in nuclear warheads. Pakistan is not a signatory of the Nuclear NonProliferation Treaty and in 1998 tested a nuclear weapon for the first time in an underground explosion.

Nuclear News reported in September 1993, that the CNNP built a nuclear power plant for Pakistan using knowledge it had gained from Qinshan I (a project that involved Westinghouse).

Building the later phases of Qinshan-with financing from U.S. taxpayers-helped the PRC develop its nuclearreactor-building expertise. Xinhua, the Chinese government's official news agency, reported earlier this year that "through the development of ... Qinshan Phase 3 [and other the corporation has basically mastered the advanced modern methodology for the management of nuclear power development projects."

As the law stands, it takes only the President's signature plus the votes of three out of the five board members of the Export-Import Bank to approve a loan to China. At the time of the Bechtel and Westinghouse-related loans, there were two vacancies on the board, and the three remaining members voted unanimously to send the money to China.

The three were Board Chairman Martin A. Kamarck and members Maria Haley and Julie Belaga. Kamarck is the husband of former Gore aide Elaine Kamarck.

On Feb. 14, 1997, a month after she voted to approve the Bechtel-related loan, the New York Times reported that "Ms. Haley's first job in Washington was in the White House personnel office, where she helped John Huang, the Riady family's senior American executive, get a job at the Commerce Department." Huang, HUMAN EVENTS readers will recall, helped funnel tens of thousands of dollars in illegal foreign contributions to President Clinton and the Democrats.

Julie Belaga was a regional administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency and an executive in a public relations firm. She was recommended for the ExIm job by Sen. Chris Dodd (D.-Conn.).

Bechtel is also working on the Daya Bay Nuclear Plant in China. The Bechtel corporation and Bechtel family have given hundreds of thousands of dollars to Republicans and Democrats alike over the last eight years, Federal Election Commission (FEC) records show.

Between corporate gifts and personal gifts from CEO Riley Bechtel and brother Stephen, the Bechtel company has given well over $1 million in federal political contributions since 1992. The contributions have been almost evenly split between Republicans and Democrats.

In an e-mail response to a HUMAN EVENTS inquiry, Nar Goel of Bechtel described the company's role in the Qinshan II and III projects. "Bechtel is responsible for design and engineering of the major [non-nuclear] structures such as the turbine buildings, intake structure/pumphouse, water treatment plant, standby diesel generators buildings, auxiliary boiler building and outfall structure," he wrote. "Bechtel is also responsible for the procurement of the equipment and materials for the BOP systems in these buildings.... Bechtel is also providing some engineering design and equipment/materials for the plant switchyard which is shared with Qinshan II unit."