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Environment
IAEA Experts to Visit Japan from Friday on Radiation Decontamination
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Plutonium-238, strontium-89 Detected in Six Places
Tokyo- (PanOrient News) -- A team of experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency will visit Japan from Friday through Oct. 15 to inspect work to decontaminate areas polluted with radioactive substances emitted from the damaged Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura said Tuesday.
The IAEA team, composed of 12 experts, will compile a report on Japan's decontamination efforts based on their on-site inspections during the visit and disclose it to the international community, Fujimura told a press conference.
The team will exchange opinions with Japanese government officials and inspect decontamination model projects in the northeastern prefecture of Fukushima, home to the Tokyo Electric Power Co. , or TEPCO, nuclear plant which was severely damaged by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
''We hope that we can move ahead with decontamination by bringing together expert knowledge from Japan and foreign countries,'' Fujimura said.
Japanese Nuclear crisis management minister Goshi Hosono agreed last month with IAEA Director-General Yukiya Amano when they met at the IAEA headquarters in Vienna last month that Tokyo will accept a team of IAEA experts in October sent to advise on cleaning up radiation-tainted areas near the Fukushima plant.
In a related development, the Japanese government said it will check the radiation levels in the environment at 5 municipalities outside the 20-kilometer no-entry zone around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
The decision follows a move last Friday to lift an evacuation advisory for the 5 municipalities, which are mainly located in the ring between 20 and 30 kilometers from the plant.
Many of the residents have not returned home as the decontamination process is not complete.
A government nuclear accident taskforce will conduct studies on the environment in the municipalities at their request, Japanese media said. The taskforce will use a device onboard a vehicle to measure radiation levels on the roads. Unmanned helicopters will be used in hilly places, where vehicles cannot enter.
It will also examine the density of radioactive substances in wells and springs at 4,000 spots, as well as in streams, rivers and reservoirs at 19 places.
Meanwhile, the science ministry said last week that Plutonium believed to be from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power station has been detected in six places including one as far as over 40 kilometers from the plant. It was the first time plutonium has been detected outside the grounds of the plant operated by TEPCO.
The plant continues to release radioactive substances after being badly damaged in the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that devastated northeastern Japan.
The six places are in Futabe, Namie and Iitate, all in Fukushima Prefecture, home to the nuclear plant.
Up to 4.0 becquerels of plutonium-238 per square meter were detected. The readings were within levels detected across Japan after nuclear tests conducted in the past outside the country, the ministry said.
The survey was conducted between June 6 and July 8 in 100 places within 80 kilometers from the nuclear plant. In the survey, strontium-89 was also detected in 45 of the 100 places, according to the ministry.
PanOrient News
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