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地震预警系统建设

After experiencing heavy casualties and extensive damage in powerful earthquakes since 2008, China is developing a way to give at least a few extra seconds' warning for those near quake epicenters.

The system, called the National Earthquake Early Warning and Intensity Quick Reporting System, which will have an estimated cost of about 2 billion yuan ($324 million), is expected to be built before 2017 by the China Earthquake Administration — if the National Development and Reform Commission approves the project this year, the administration said.

The administration said the system will detect earthquake-related shaking that are in the form of P-waves, which move rapidly but are harmless, and which arrive before the more-powerful and destructive shear waves, or S-waves.

"As earthquakes cannot be predicted, getting people to safety quickly before the destructive waves arrive can largely decrease casualties," Li Shanyou, deputy director of the Institute of Engineering Mechanics under the China Earthquake Administration, told China Daily.

He added that the few seconds of warning can also help a train driver slow down to avoid possible derailment, warn a doctor to stop a surgery, give a shutdown signal to chemical factories, prevent potential leaks and fires, and alert officials at critical projects, such as nuclear plants.

Experts estimate that casualties could be reduced by 14 percent with a three-second advance warning of an earthquake, and 39 percent with a 10-second warning.