The central environmental authorities have sent a 21-member expert team to quake-stricken southwest Sichuan Province to assess nuclear and water pollution risks and direct relief work.

The Ministry of Environmental Protection announced the move in a circular on Tuesday.

Led by Vice Environmental Protection Minister Li Ganjie, the team includes staff of the ministry's Bureau of Environmental Supervision and Department of Nuclear Safety Management and various experts.

The ministry's local environmental supervision centers in the southwest and northwest, and the Sichuan nuclear safety supervision station, have already sent staff to the worst-hit areas.

The authority sent an emergency notice on Tuesday to local agencies in quake-affected provincial-level areas including Sichuan, Ningxia, Gansu, Qinghai and Tibet to closely monitor conditions of nuclear facilities such as power stations, chemical plants and sewage treatment plants to prevent possible pollution incidents.

The 7.8-magnitude quake, which struck Sichuan on Monday afternoon, has killed 9,219 people in Sichuan, Gansu, Shaanxi, Chongqing, Yunnan, Shanxi, Guizhou and Hubei, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said in a release issued at 7:00 a.m. on Tuesday.

(Xinhua News Agency May 13, 2008)