2014年CRI 中国扩大马航失联航班的搜索范围 敦促日本解释核材料（在线收听）

China says it will expand the search area for the missing jet in the coming days.

The search will be expanded to the east and west, with intensive search in the east region and enhanced efforts in the southeast from Saturday, according to the China Maritime Search and Rescue Center.

It will also augment logistics support and arrange search rotations of different vessels.

Eight Chinese vessels have searched over 70 thousand square kilometers of the sea's surface. No confirmed debris has been found.

Search and rescue operations by many nations have failed to find any trace of the missing Malaysian flight.

China's Foreign Ministry has issued a new call, urging Japan to explain its massive stockpile of nuclear material.

It comes as media reports suggest Japan's stockpile has exceeded the country's demand and might increase as Japan re-launches nuclear power plants.

Japan is set to re-start the Rokkasho Nuclear Fuel Reprocessing this October.

The factory will reportedly produce up to 96 tons of plutonium metal in the next dozen years, far more than all stocks that remain in the United States as a legacy of the Cold War.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei urges the Japanese government to face the concerns and explain in detail why Japan has such a large stockpile of sensitive nuclear material.

The United States gave 331 kilograms of weapons-grade plutonium to Japan during the Cold War.

Japan holds another 44 tonnes of plutonium, which could be used for nuclear reactors.