All news

Fukushima accident gives rise to study of F East technogenic risks

Today experts can give advice on safety of that or other territories for building energy, transport facilities and industrial enterprises

VLADIVOSTOK, October 6 (Itar-Tass) — The accident at the Japanese nuclear power plant Fukushima-1 in March this year has given an impetus to the study of natural and technological hazards for regions of the Russian Far East. A major volume of work has been done over the past six months and already today experts can give advice on safety of that or other territories for building energy, transport facilities and industrial enterprises, Vice President of the Russian National Committee for UNEP Viktor Usov said in a report at the fifth international ecological forum Nature Without Borders.

According to him, all kinds of risks: geophysical - earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, weather - storms and tsunamis, soil - droughts and landslides, and even space - fall of meteorites and solar radiation have got into view of environmentalists.

Governor of the Primorsky Territory Sergey Darkin also noted the role played by the Japanese NPP accident in monitoring for hazards in the Far East. “According to our monitoring, we have not detected large deviations from the commonly accepted standards, but it gave a powerful impetus to the daily monitoring,” the governor said. “We fully manage the state of affairs, but we are intensifying control over the situation.”

“In particular, we are now developing a safety program for the prevention of tsunami after-effects. Also, we do not overlook the problem of earthquakes – the program for the protection of the population is also in being developed,” Darkin said.

Several reports will be devoted to the Fukushima-1 NPP accident at the forum. So, Rector of the G. I. Nevelskoy Maritime State University Sergei Ogai will deliver a report on the results of the expedition of the Nadezhda sailboat this May, during which the background radiation was studied in various parts of the Sea of Japan (East Sea). Referring to the results of these studies, Ogai noted that although “the sailing-ship Nadezhda during its expedition did not register excesses of the radiation background, scientists detected new, hitherto unknown links between the radiation background and the state of atmospheric aerosols, which is indicative of the need to develop new methods for the study of these processes."