The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is implementing a Technical Cooperation (TC) Project for countries throughout the Pacific Ocean region to monitor radioactive substances in the marine environment in the wake of the release of radioactive particles into the Pacific from the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan.
Twenty-one IAEA Member-States and three non-member States are participating in the project, the U.N. nuclear watchdog said.
The first project meeting was held in Australia in August followed by a workshop on quality management in data handling and analytical procedures, conducted at the IAEA environment laboratories in Monaco last month.
Considerable volumes of radioactive contaminated water entered and polluted the Pacific Ocean following the March 11 Nuclear accident. It raised concern among countries in the Pacific region that radiation releases may reach and damage coastal zones with possible consequences for communities and economies.
The IAEA TC project will enhance national capacities, which in turn will improve the exchange of data gathered from the ocean measurements, and the information about the potential impact of these radioisotopes and risks to marine biota, as well as to humans through marine food consumption.
"It is expected that the enormous dilution capacity of the Pacific Ocean will lead to low residual concentrations of radionuclides in ocean waters such that any significant contamination of marine food in coastal waters outside of Japan will not occur," said Hartmut Nies, head of IAEA's radiometrics laboratory and technical officer for the project. "So far, only Cs-134 and Cs-137 were detected far offshore from the Japanese coast in the prevailing Kuroshio Ocean current at levels of less concern," he added.
The regional project will optimize and coordinate the application of the available skills and resources in the region and generate data that is reliable and exchangeable and comparable by improved quality assurance systems among participating Member-States. It will also enhance countries' monitoring capacities for radioactivity in coastal waters in the case of accidental releases of radioactive substances in the future.
The majority of countries participating in the project are collaborating under the Regional Cooperative Agreement for Research, Development and Training Related to Nuclear Science and Technology for Asia and the Pacific Region (RCA). RCA countries participating in the project are Australia, Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam.
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