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Pressure mounts on Japan to expand evacuation zone
Source: Xinhua |
March 31, 2011, Thursday
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Online Edition
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Japan said today it had no immediate plans to expand the Fukushima evacuation zone despite mounting pressure, but promised a swift response if the situation continued to worsen.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) yesterday urged Japan to expand the 20 km evacuation zone after radiation levels measured at Iitate village, some 40 kms from the Fukushima nuclear complex, were found to exceed the recommended level.
"The first assessment indicates that one of the IAEA operational criteria for evacuation is exceeded in Iitate village," senior IAEA official Denis Flory told reporters in Vienna.
The IAEA had therefore advised Japan to "carefully assess the situation, and they have indicated that it is already under assessment," he said.
The reading in Iitate was two megabecquerels per square meter, a ratio about two times higher than levels at which the IAEA recommends evacuation, said the head of its Incident and Emergency Centre, Elena Buglova.
In response, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told a news conference: "We have no plans to immediately evacuate people, but naturally, high radiation levels in soil, if continued over a long period of time ... if need be, (we will) take steps to deal with it."
Meanwhile, the level of radioactive iodine in the sea off Japan's disaster-hit Fukushima nuclear plant had surged to a new high of 4,385 times the legal limit, Japan's nuclear safety agency said today.
But Hidehiko Nishiyama, an agency spokesman, said the contaminated water posed no immediate threat to human health.
"We will do our utmost to stop it from rising," he said.
After battling the radiation crisis for nearly three weeks, pressure to come up with new solutions mounted Wednesday, as Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the plant's operator, admitted it had no idea when the nuclear nightmare would come to an end.
"Key factors are still unknown, such as how the nuclear incident will come to an end... In a word, the very difficult situation is expected to continue," TEPCO chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata told reporters.
With the March 11 earthquake and ensuing tsunami having crippled the plant's crucial control room, experts are not sure what is happening inside the stricken reactors, adding difficulties to the task of containing the radiation.
Japan's struggling response has given rise to a gnawing sense that the country may be on the verge of another nuclear crisis and many countries have sent nuclear experts to help Japan deal with the crisis.
Anne Lauvergeon, chief executive of nuclear power giant Areva and one of France's most powerful female executives, arrived in Japan yesterday with three French experts in radioactive water contamination.
"At the moment, the problem which worries TEPCO is water, so we are trying to see -- because they (the French experts) are specialists in the treatment of radioactive waste -- what they could advocate," she said. "They are looking at what aid we could bring them."
Two other Areva experts flew to Japan Tuesday, after a request for help from TEPCO, an Areva spokeswoman said.
Meanwhile, IAEA head Yukiya Amano said today the agency would send more sea experts to Japan.
Radioactive materials have penetrated their way into food, with many countries reporting traces of cesium and iodine detected in imported Japanese food.
Singapore Wednesday told the UN nuclear watchdog some cabbages imported from Japan had radiation levels up to nine times the levels recommended for international trade.
"The Singapore authorities sent reports on measurements in food imported from Japan, namely cabbages ... some samples were over the Codex Alimentarius values recommended for international trade," the IAEA's Flory said.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) yesterday urged Japan to expand the 20 km evacuation zone after radiation levels measured at Iitate village, some 40 kms from the Fukushima nuclear complex, were found to exceed the recommended level.
"The first assessment indicates that one of the IAEA operational criteria for evacuation is exceeded in Iitate village," senior IAEA official Denis Flory told reporters in Vienna.
The IAEA had therefore advised Japan to "carefully assess the situation, and they have indicated that it is already under assessment," he said.
The reading in Iitate was two megabecquerels per square meter, a ratio about two times higher than levels at which the IAEA recommends evacuation, said the head of its Incident and Emergency Centre, Elena Buglova.
In response, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told a news conference: "We have no plans to immediately evacuate people, but naturally, high radiation levels in soil, if continued over a long period of time ... if need be, (we will) take steps to deal with it."
Meanwhile, the level of radioactive iodine in the sea off Japan's disaster-hit Fukushima nuclear plant had surged to a new high of 4,385 times the legal limit, Japan's nuclear safety agency said today.
But Hidehiko Nishiyama, an agency spokesman, said the contaminated water posed no immediate threat to human health.
"We will do our utmost to stop it from rising," he said.
After battling the radiation crisis for nearly three weeks, pressure to come up with new solutions mounted Wednesday, as Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the plant's operator, admitted it had no idea when the nuclear nightmare would come to an end.
"Key factors are still unknown, such as how the nuclear incident will come to an end... In a word, the very difficult situation is expected to continue," TEPCO chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata told reporters.
With the March 11 earthquake and ensuing tsunami having crippled the plant's crucial control room, experts are not sure what is happening inside the stricken reactors, adding difficulties to the task of containing the radiation.
Japan's struggling response has given rise to a gnawing sense that the country may be on the verge of another nuclear crisis and many countries have sent nuclear experts to help Japan deal with the crisis.
Anne Lauvergeon, chief executive of nuclear power giant Areva and one of France's most powerful female executives, arrived in Japan yesterday with three French experts in radioactive water contamination.
"At the moment, the problem which worries TEPCO is water, so we are trying to see -- because they (the French experts) are specialists in the treatment of radioactive waste -- what they could advocate," she said. "They are looking at what aid we could bring them."
Two other Areva experts flew to Japan Tuesday, after a request for help from TEPCO, an Areva spokeswoman said.
Meanwhile, IAEA head Yukiya Amano said today the agency would send more sea experts to Japan.
Radioactive materials have penetrated their way into food, with many countries reporting traces of cesium and iodine detected in imported Japanese food.
Singapore Wednesday told the UN nuclear watchdog some cabbages imported from Japan had radiation levels up to nine times the levels recommended for international trade.
"The Singapore authorities sent reports on measurements in food imported from Japan, namely cabbages ... some samples were over the Codex Alimentarius values recommended for international trade," the IAEA's Flory said.
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