Radiation level in Khabarovsk Krai, Tatar Strait below norm

KHABAROVSK (Itar-Tass) - The background radiation level in
the Khabarovsk Territory is on Monday from 6 to 12 micro-roentgens per
hour, well below the natural background parameters of up to 25
micro-roentgens.
The territorial government's Civil Defence Department told Itar-Tass
on Monday that "in Sovetskaya Gavan that is located on the coast of the
Tatar Strait, that is closest of all other cities of the territory to
Japan, instruments have been recording the gamma radiation level of 9
micro-roentgens per hour.
In the city of Khabarovsk, the background radiation is 13
micro-roentgens per hour.
RF Emergency Situations Ministry's (EMERCOM) specialists emphasise
with reference to the results of round the clock monitoring: "There is no
health hazard for the population due to emissions of radiation from Japan'
s emergency nuclear power plant."
The territory's residents can get information about the radioactive
situation any time using the telephone "hotline" of the EMERCOM main
department for the Khabarovsk territory and the regional hydrometeorology
centre.
According to earlier reports, radiation has not affected the main
fishing zones - the Sea of Okhotsk - the catch area of Alaska pollack
and herring. Radioactive clouds also will not reach the Russian waters of
the Bering Sea. Even in case of the worst scenarios of developments at
Japan's emergency nuclear power plants affected by a strong earthquake and
ensuring tsunami, "Pacific salmon, which lives at depths of up to 50
metres and has a feeding area of many millions of square kilometres, will
not bring to the people's table a dangerous radiation level," Director of
the Khabarovsk branch of the TINRO (Pacific Research Fishery) Centre
German Novomodny told Itar-Tass last week. He stressed that the salmon
growing period takes place mostly to the north of the 40th degree North
latitude. It is the zone of the so-called Pacific drift. Part of salmon
caught in the Far East, including in the Khabarovsk Territory have their
growing period in the region between the Aleutian and Kurile Islands and
the Pacific drift area.
The scientist noted that the ocean - is "a living organism, which
recycles and disposes of hazardous substances." Radioactive iodine, in
particular, "decays rapidly, and radioactive cesium is rather soon
discharged from the body of living beings." Director of the Khabarovsk
TINRO Centre believed that all the salmon fishes would come to the
spawning and fishing areas "absolutely clean."
Within the framework of enhanced monitoring of the radiation situation
four research vessels are taking water samples and analysing sediments and
hydrobionts in the Sea of Okhotsk, Sea of Japan (East Sea) and other areas
of the Pacific Rim. The analyses' results have shown that everything is
all right with the fish.
Natural background radiation was normal throughout the Russian Far
East last week. Radiation measurements were taken by 610 stationary and
mobile posts, six aircraft and 26 ships of the Russian Emergency
Situations Ministry, Eastern Military District of the Russian Defence
Ministry, Border Guard Service of Russia's FSB have been 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.