Natural radiation background persists in Russia Far East

VLADIVOSTOK, March 23 (Itar-Tass) - Natural background radiation
persists throughout the Russian Far East on Wednesday. Radiation
measurements are taken by 610 stationary and mobile posts, six aircraft
and 26 ships of the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry (EMERCOM),
Eastern Military District of the Russian Defence Ministry, Border Guards
Service of Russia's FSB are involved in the radiation monitoring,
spokesman for the Far Eastern Regional Centre of the Emergency Situations
Ministry Sergei Viktorov said. The background radiation level has not been
exceeded anywhere.
The day before the radiation background in different areas of the Far
Eastern Federal District ranged from 6 to 17 micro-roentgens per hour,
well below the level of 30 micro-roentgens per hour.
According to the Vladivostok Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre,
ships passing near Japan and visiting the ports of the Pacific coast of
Russia, also have no traces of radiation from the damaged nuclear power
plants in Japan. Russian transport vessels the routes of which lie around
Japan choose the way near its western shores or sail in the Pacific Ocean
farther from shore. "There has been no reports at all that the vessels
that came to the ports of the Far East would bear the traces of radiation
from emergency nuclear power plants in Japan," said marine rescuers.
Even the worst scenario at the nuclear power plants in Japan does not
pose any threat to Russia's Far East, the chief of the Russian state
nuclear power corporation Rosatom, Sergei Kiriyenko, said at a meeting
with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin last week. "If the worst scenario of
radiation emissions coincides with the worst wind situation no threat
exists to Russia's Far East," Kiriyenko said, offering his own scenario
based on the Japanese reports and Russian expert estimates. He also noted
that "no nuclear blast threat exists at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power
plant." Putin demanded from Rosatom to analyse Russia's plans to build
nuclear power plants within a month over the tragic events in Japan. "I
instruct the Energy Ministry, Rosatom and the Ministry of Natural
Resources to analyse the current state of the Russian nuclear industry and
the development plans and to pass the results in the government within a
month," Putin said. The prime minister also proposed to speed up the
projects for hydrocarbon production in the Russian Far East, including the
Sakhalin-3 project, for larger supplies to Japan.