PNRI: Still no danger of radioactive seawater reaching PHL

While there is still radiation emanating from a quake-crippled nuclear power plant in Japan, there is little chance that harmful radioactivity from the facility will reach Philippine waters. In its Wednesday update, the Philippine Nuclear Research Institute (PNRI), an attached agency of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), said the discharges from the plant will likely be diluted by ocean currents and deeper waters. "The DOST-PNRI does not expect that harmful levels of radioactivity will reach the Philippine waters," it said. It also said the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) has forecast that winds from northern Japan are likely to move east towards the Pacific Ocean and away from the Philippines for the next three days. "Based on the PAGASA model, air parcel coming from northern Japan is forecasted to move east towards the Pacific Ocean for the next three days," it said. The PNRI also said that while the condition in the plant remains very serious, it is not worsening. Citing data from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the PNRI said Plutonium (Pu) was reportedly found in soil samples at the Fukushima plant site. It however said that the Japanese government agency MEXT had indicated that the concentration of the detected Pu is still in the background range of Pu activity found in Japan before the accident. Concentrations reported for both Pu-238 and Pu-239/240 are similar to those deposited in Japan as a result of the testing of nuclear weapons, it said. "The ratio of the concentrations of Pu-238 and Pu-239/240 in two of the samples indicates that very small amounts of Pu might have been released during the Fukushima accident, but this requires to be further clarified," PNRI said. Meanwhile, the latest PNRI radiation level check at the PNRI as of 9 a.m. Wednesday showed the status remains normal, at 100 to 115 nanosieverts per hour. - KBK, GMA News