Mumbai: The Atomic Energy Regulatory Board
(AERB), which is continuously keeping a watch on the radiation
levels in India in the wake of the nuclear crisis in Japan,
on Tuesday said there was no increase in radiation in the country
"over and above the natural background".
Data from the Indian Environmental Radiation Monitoring
Network (IERMON) till Tuesday showed that there has been no
increase in radiation levels at various locations within India
over and above the natural background, the AERB said in a
release in Mumbai.
The data assumes significance as Japan's Nuclear and
Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) today issued a new revised
provisional rating for the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi
nuclear power plant on the IAEA International Nuclear and
Radiological Event Scale (INES) as Level 7.
NISA has estimated that the amount of radioactive
material released to the atmosphere is nearly 10 per cent of
the 1986 Chernobyl accident in Russia, which was rated at
Level 7 on INES scale, the release said quoting AERB secretary
R Bhattacharya.
"We continue to closely follow the events unfolding at
the Fukushima nuclear power plants," he said.
"The high-level committee constituted by AERB has already
began deliberations in reviewing the safety of Indian nuclear
power plants in the light of the accident at Fukushima," he
added.
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, April 12, 2011, 20:20