Accidents at Japanese nuclear power plants pose no danger to Russia - expert
MOSCOW. March 15 () - It is unlikely that toxic particles can be carried from Japan to Russia by air, a leading Russian expert on nuclear security told Interfax on Tuesday.
"Taking into account the big distance, the expected source parameters, and the weather, the risk of contamination of the territory of Russia, primarily, the Far East, is low," Igor Linge, deputy director of the Institute for Safe Atomic Energy Development of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said.
"Something may reach [the Russian territory] and be registered, but the probability of contamination is very low. It will not pose any threat to the population's health, the levels will be very low," the expert said.The fact that radiation levels have been exceeded forty times in one of Tokyo's districts is not a reason for alarm, Linge said.
"If it does not last long, it poses no danger. It's not dangerous in the course of a week or a month. If it lasts many years, then it's a reason for concerns, but no more. Radiation levels can change in different regions and people live there for generations," he said.
Radiation levels exceeding the normal level by 40 times have been registered in the Saitama prefecture, the Tokyo administration reported on Tuesday.
Elements of radioactive iodine and caesium have been registered in some parts of central Tokyo. However, it has not been confirmed yet whether it is connected to the explosion that occurred at the Fukushima 1 nuclear power plant on Tuesday morning.
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