Radioactive dust from Japan’s Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant could come close to Taiwan tomorrow, but radiation levels will remain “very low” and be of no risk to human health, the Atomic Energy Council said yesterday.
In its presentation, the council said it had used weather information provided by the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) from yesterday until Friday to estimate the impact of the radioactive dust on Taiwan.
One of the wind forecast models showed that the radioactive dust would approach the nation between tomorrow and Friday, it said.
“On Friday, the dust will come within 200km of the nation’s northeast coast, which will be the closest it gets,” the council said.
For Thursday, the council forecast that the maximum impact of the radioactive dust on the nation would be 0.0223 microsieverts per hour, which remained lower than the natural background value of 0.1 microsieverts per hour, it said.
The amount of radiation in the dust does not pose a health risk because it would take the human body 1,000 hours of being battered by the cloud of fallout to absorb the same radiation as a single chest X-ray, the council said.
The Government Information Office yesterday also said that radioactive dust would only come within about 200km of Taiwan at its closest over the next few days.
The council said calculations for the maximum impact of radiation fallout from Fukushima Dai-ichi were based on specific criteria — radiation levels at the plant must reach 78.4 microsieverts per hour, the emission of radioactive dusts must be continuous and the dust must also be blown directly toward Taiwan.
Meanwhile, in a markedly different assessment, Academia Sinica said the radioactive dust could arrive on the nation’s east coast today, albeit in a highly diluted form.
Liu Shaw-chen (劉紹臣), director of Academia Sinica’s Research Center for Environmental Change, said radiation within 20km of the plant had dropped to an average of 1 to 2 microsieverts per hour on Sunday.
“If the average radiation level of the dust is 1.5 microsieverts, it would potentially be diluted 100 times to 0.015 microsierverts [by the time it reached Taiwan],” Liu said.
Liu said radioactive dust would be carried to Taiwan via the northeast monsoon, which could bring rain to mountainous areas along the east coast. Radiation levels in the rain could be between 10 and 100 times higher than 0.015 microsieverts, he said.
Residents in these areas are advised to carry umbrellas and raincoats to avoid contact with radioactive fallout, he said.
So far, no abnormal levels of radiation have been detected in sea areas around northern Taiwan since the council began working with the Coast Guard Administration on March 18 to send two vessels out daily to check radiation levels. The ships have traveled as far as 630km away from the Port of Keelung.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CNA
NEXT GENERATION: The four plants in the Central Taiwan Science Park, designated Fab 25, would consist of four 1.4-nanometer wafer manufacturing plants, TSMC said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) plans to begin construction of four new plants later this year, with the aim to officially launch production of 2-nanometer semiconductor wafers by late 2028, Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau director-general Hsu Maw-shin (許茂新) said. Hsu made the announcement at an event on Friday evening celebrating the Central Taiwan Science Park’s 22nd anniversary. The second phase of the park’s expansion would commence with the initial construction of water detention ponds and other structures aimed at soil and water conservation, Hsu said. TSMC has officially leased the land, with the Central Taiwan Science Park having handed over the
The Philippines is working behind the scenes to enhance its defensive cooperation with Taiwan, the Washington Post said in a report published on Monday. “It would be hiding from the obvious to say that Taiwan’s security will not affect us,” Philippine Secretary of National Defense Gilbert Teodoro Jr told the paper in an interview on Thursday last week. Although there has been no formal change to the Philippines’ diplomatic stance on recognizing Taiwan, Manila is increasingly concerned about Chinese encroachment in the South China Sea, the report said. The number of Chinese vessels in the seas around the Philippines, as well as Chinese
URBAN COMBAT: FIM-92 Stinger shoulder-fired missiles from the US made a rare public appearance during early-morning drills simulating an invasion of the Taipei MRT The ongoing Han Kuang military exercises entered their sixth day yesterday, simulating repelling enemy landings in Penghu County, setting up fortifications in Tainan, laying mines in waters in Kaohsiung and conducting urban combat drills in Taipei. At 5am in Penghu — part of the exercise’s first combat zone — participating units responded to a simulated rapid enemy landing on beaches, combining infantry as well as armored personnel. First Combat Zone Commander Chen Chun-yuan (陳俊源) led the combined armed troops utilizing a variety of weapons systems. Wang Keng-sheng (王鏗勝), the commander in charge of the Penghu Defense Command’s mechanized battalion, said he would give
AUKUS: The Australian Ambassador to the US said his country is working with the Pentagon and he is confident that submarine issues will be resolved Australian Ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd on Friday said that if Taiwan were to fall to China’s occupation, it would unleash China’s military capacities and capabilities more broadly. He also said his country is working with the Pentagon on the US Department of Defense’s review of the AUKUS submarine project and is confident that all issues raised will be resolved. Rudd, who served as Australian prime minister from 2007 to 2010 and for three months in 2013, made the remarks at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado and stressed the longstanding US-Australia alliance and his close relationship with the US Undersecretary
RSS