By Lucy Hornby
CHENGDU, China (Reuters) - China has found what it termed50 "hazardous sources of radiation" due to last week'searthquake, a senior official said on Friday, although heinsisted the situation was under control.
But Wu Xiaoqing, vice environment minister, said there hadbeen no accidental releases of radiation.
"Thirty-five of the radiation sources have been recovered,and the location of another 15 has been confirmed, but theyhave not yet been recovered," Wu told reporters in Beijing.
"Three are buried in rubble and another 12 are in dangerousbuildings, which staff cannot go into," he added. "At present,tests from the scene show that there has yet to be anaccidental release of radiation."
The disaster area is home to China's chief nuclear weaponsresearch lab in Mianyang, as well as several secretive atomicsites, but no nuclear power stations.
In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman Tom Caseysaid he had no information to suggest that the radioactivesources identified by China were a hazard to people but he saidsuch a possibility was always worrisome.
"Anytime you have nuclear material, or other potentialhazardous material, out there, you want to make sureeverything's done to be able to contain (it)," he said.
Eleven days after the 7.9 magnitude quake shook themountainous province of Sichuan, hundreds of thousands ofsoldiers, relief workers and normal residents are now focusedon reconstruction.
The known death toll from the quake already exceeds 55,000,but more bodies are expected to be found as the debris from thedozens of flattened cities, towns and villages is cleared.
A top provincial official said China would need to rebuildwhole towns and villages from scratch to rehouse the millionsdisplaced by the quake, a task that could take three years.
Some towns in the earthquake zone in the southwest of thecountry would need to be relocated altogether because theterrain is not safe, officials have said.
RAINY SEASON COMING
The rainy season, due within weeks, is adding urgency totheir work. The government's main concern is that aftershocksand heavy rain could cause secondary disasters such asflashfloods and landslides.
"The rebuilding work faces difficulties in the region,where the mountains have been shaken loose in the earthquakeand there have been more than 7,000 aftershocks," Li Chengyun,vice governor of Sichuan, told a news conference in Beijing.
Relief workers are also concerned that poor hygiene couldcause disease outbreaks. Li said this was a "peak period foroutbreaks of diseases," describing the situation as very grim.
China has pleaded with the international community toprovide millions of tents for the homeless. It will also sendtonnes of heavy building equipment and supplies into the area.
"We will strive to provide safe, economical and convenienttemporary housing for 98 percent of the residents within thenext month," Li said.
In Chengdu, some volunteer relief convoys reported beingheld up by hungry residents, one at gunpoint. Two people weredecapitated by helicopter blades, one at the Wolong pandareserve, sources in Sichuan and local reporters said.
U.N. CHIEF HEADS TO CHINA
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who has been in Myanmarto urge the military junta to end restrictions on foreign aidworkers, will visit China on Saturday to show solidarity withthe Chinese people, the United Nations said, without givingdetails.
Premier Wen Jiabao, making his second visit to the disasterzone, visited hospitals and tents sheltering quake refugees onFriday in Mianyang and Beichuan county, one of the worst-hitareas.
In a temporary shelter for the Beichuan Middle School,which lost up to 1,000 students and teachers in the quake, Wentried to cheer up children, writing a line on the blackboardreading "Deep distress resurrects a nation."
Wen, a trained geologist, had earlier ordered rescueworkers to eliminate the danger of dammed rivers, waterways andbulging newly formed lakes "through engineering means" whileswiftly evacuating people in their path.
The May 12 quake, the worst to hit China in a generation,changed the landscape of northern Sichuan forever.
In Hongguang, in the province's northeast, the quake causedboth sides of a valley to slide, burying three villages and 900people. The Qingzhu River is trapped behind.
"The mountains merged," said Gao Xiao, who barely escaped alandslide that roared past her house.
(Additional reporting by Guo Shipeng and Ben Blanchard inBeijing; Writing by Jeremy Laurence; Editing by Bill Tarrantand Eric Beech)
(For more stories on China's quake, follow the link toReuters AlertNet http://www.alertnet.org. For full coverage ofthe quake in China, click onwww.reuters.com/news/globalcoverage/china))
