介绍:
The recent chemical plant explosion in the eastern province of Fujian has stirred public concerns over the cleanup.
An explosion on April 6 at the Dragon Aromatics Plant involved a paraxylene, or PX, facility on the Gulei Peninsula. Government investigators said the blast was caused by a chemical leak and that four oil tanks were involved.
More than 700 firefighters battled the fire for three days before it was extinguished. About 30,000 people living nearby were evacuated. No one was killed, but more than a dozen people were reportedly injured.
The plants making the chemical were already controversial because PX is toxic to human health. Several industry experts said that the disaster will cause more public doubts about the safety of PX facilities. The Gulei plant suffered an explosion in July 2013, though no casualties or toxic leaks were reported. The plant was originally planned for construction in the large coastal city of Xiamen, but was moved to Zhangzhou due to mass protests in 2007.
After the latest explosion and fire, several villages near the plant have been evacuated. Local media reported thousands of seahorses raised by locals for use in medicines have died, triggering fears over the safety of water supplies.
One villager said locals have stopped eating locally grown vegetables and seafood. He said that as people learned more about PX projects in recent years, opposition had actually ebbed and the focus had fallen on how the government supervises facilities.
No results of the official investigation into the latest explosion have been released, but Cao Xianghong, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said many materials involved in PX production are flammable and any flaw in production can cause an explosion.
For Caixin Online, this is Diana Bates.
4月6日18时56分，大海三面环抱的福建省漳州市漳浦县古雷镇，被一声声巨响打破平静。台资企业翔鹭集团所属的腾龙芳烃PX项目发生爆炸。
爆炸引发的震动，连中国地震台网都能监测出来。三个罐体爆燃成的火海占据了半个天空，三天后方熄。其间，大火两次复燃，还引燃了第四个罐体。一度，当地政府为防不测，紧急撤离了附近居民近3万人，连现场20多公里以外的杜浔镇部分居民都仓皇逃离。
家住PX工厂对面村的小东（化名）至今想起来还后怕。当时以为是地震，玻璃都震碎了。不过，在得知是PX厂爆炸后，小东心里倒是有了数，“2013年第一次爆炸后，我们就知道迟早还有下一次。”
小东指的这次“爆炸”，被官方称为闪燃，发生在2013年7月30日清晨，PX项目一条尚未投用的加氢裂化管线在充入氢气测试压力过程中，发生焊缝开裂闪燃。官方称无人员伤亡，附近一个村庄部分房屋玻璃震裂或破碎。
所幸事故仅十几人受伤，且多为碎玻璃划伤，但它给PX行业带来的震动，远远超出事故本身。
古雷PX工厂一度为全国最大PX项目，八年前原想建在厦门，但因在厦门引发中国第一场大规模反PX邻避运动而迁址。之后，各地更多的反PX邻避运动接连发生，已成有中国特色的环保现象。
刚刚发生在古雷PX工厂中的这场事故，其实是一场发生在PX工厂的非PX事故。因“33号腾龙芳烃装置和周边的常压渣油发生漏油着火”，引发罐区数个罐体“爆裂燃烧”，这与该工厂生不生产PX，并无必然关系。
4月9日上午，福建省安监局已将该事故初步定性为安全生产责任事故，并成立调查组对准确事故原因进行调查。
未来，国内众多已上马和待上马的PX项目，当以此事故为鉴。
众多业内专家则告诉财新记者，这场事故极可能进一步加重民间对PX工厂安全性的怀疑，从而让各地计划好的PX项目难以如期落地。
