Radiation unlikely to affect Korea

By Park Si-soo

South Korea is unlikely to be exposed to any serious radiation risks in the wake of the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami in Japan that caused an explosion at a nuclear reactor there, government officials and nuclear experts here said Sunday.

They said the odds of dangerous radioactive materials blowing over the Korean Peninsula from the neighboring country were very slim as the wind is blowing toward the Pacific Ocean.

“The quake-damaged reactors in Japan are unlikely to pose any serious radiation risk to us. That’s because it’s a season of westerly winds blowing out from Korea toward Japan and the U.S. West Coast,” said Kim Seung-bae, a spokesman for the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA), Sunday.

Kim said the possibility that the wind will reverse its direction was “extremely low,” citing results of simulations the KMA conducted Saturday.

Kim said the toxic material will blow out across the Pacific, toward the U.S. mainland and other nations on the American Continent that are “too distant to reach.”

Experts also said that the amount of radioactive material leaking from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear reactor was not large enough to affect Korea and other neighboring countries.

The Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety, which is monitoring the situation around the nation, said Korea is free from risks of radioactive material.

“No unusual signs have been detected,” said Park Chang-ho, a spokesman for the institute.

However, the institute is bolstering its monitoring. Following the quake, it has run a situation room with 30 experts, monitoring radiation levels around the clock at 70 checkpoints across the country.

Of them, 12 are located along the east coast, the closest part of the country to Japan.

It said that none of its monitors has so far indicated any changes in reading.

Park said the institute is supposed to issue a radiation warning via mass media only when radiation density reaches 100 times higher than the current level.

Meanwhile, some 170,000 people have been ordered to evacuate an area covering a radius of 20 kilometers around the quake-damaged nuclear plant in Fukushima.

The Unit 1 reactor of the plant was in trouble Saturday with an explosion destroying the walls of the room in which it is housed. Meltdowns are also suspected of having started at other quake-damaged reactors.

“日 원전 방사능 누출시에도 국내 영향 희박"

기상청은 일요일 일본 후쿠시마(福島) 원자력발전소의 방사능 누출 가능성이 제기되고 있는 것과 관련, 우리나라에는 영향을 미칠 가능성이 희박하다고 밝혔다.

기상청은 이날 후쿠시마 원전의 방사능 누출 가능성에 따라 대기 확산에 관한 시뮬레이션을 통해 영향 정도를 분석한 결과 이같이 나타났다고 말했다.

기상청 관계자는 "방사능이 누출된 뒤 확산되더라도 현재 불고 있는 편서풍으로 인해 일본 열도 동쪽인 태평양 방향으로 이동할 것으로 보인다"고 말했다.