Korea to beef up radiation checks on seawater, imports

By Park Si-soo

The government decided Wednesday to establish a task force in charge of monitoring radiation levels of seawater at 57 checkpoints and of imported agricultural and marine products.

The monitoring will continue until August, with the task force being comprised of experts from a number of state organizations, the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs said.

The move comes one day after Japan raised its assessment of the nuclear crisis to a level equivalent to the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

“We’ve decided to closely monitor radiation levels in seawater and a wider range of produce. We will also strengthen cooperation with Japan, Russia and China to counter possible rises in radiation risks,” a government official said.

The government has been applying radiation checks to all agricultural and marine products, both raw and processed, imported from Japan.

The alert level to 7 from 5 on an international scale, set by the International Atomic Energy Agency, is viewed as Japan’s acknowledgment that the human and environmental consequences of the radiation leak could be dire and long-lasting, experts here said.

“Japan seems to have increased the level to express its stronger will to address the crisis as early as possible. At the same time, it can be seen as a warning sign to other countries, demanding they brace for long-term radiation risk,” said professor Lee Eun-chul at Seoul National University’s nuclear engineering department. “As long as this level remains, we should maintain a high degree of monitoring and information exchange with Japan.”

Experts say the emission of radiation into the environment will have little negative impact on the Korean Peninsula thanks to the wind direction blowing toward the Pacific Ocean.

In fact, radioactive materials detected here have not been significant enough to pose any health risks, experts said.

Those feeling higher anxiety over the level increase include operators of deep-sea fisheries and importers of fish caught in waters off Japan.

South Korea is a big market for squid, salmon, mackerel, pollack and tuna, whose travel route includes waters off the crippled plant.

Experts here warn that some “squid caught in autumn in the East Sea and salmon caught in waters off the country in three or four years to come may have been exposed to radioactive fallout.”

The ocean near Fukushima was severely contaminated by more than 11,000 tons of radioactive water leaked from a nuclear reactor hit by the 9.0-madnitude earthquake and ensuing tsunami on March 11. The leak was stopped last Sunday.

Fish experts said there are no immediate risks to Koreans eating contaminated fish, citing ocean currents near the plant flowing toward the Pacific.

“It takes nearly five years for contaminated seawater to arrive at areas where our favorite fish are caught after turning around the west coast of the U.S.,” said Lee Joon-soo at the National Fisheries Research and Development.