There is no chance of any radioactive fallout from Japan's devastated nuclear complex reaching Ukraine, Ukrainian experts said Thursday.
"Radioactive particles which can fall as a result of this accident, can not represent any threat to people in Ukraine, or even any threat," Mykola Kulbida, head of the Ukrainian hydro meteorological center, said at a news conference.
Kulbida said that "according to the forecast for the next week, the air mass from Japan is moving toward the Pacific and the Americas."
Kulbida quoted World Meteorological Organization reports as saying that products of radioactive decay, which were formed as a result of the accidents fall into the air surface layer at a height not exceeding 500 meters.
Vladimir Osadchiy, director of the Research Hydro Meteorological Center, seconded Kulbida's opinion.
"Japanese nuclear power plants explosions were not enough to form a cloud of radioactive decay, which could climb to an altitude of 10 to 15 kilometers that would allow it to move over large distances," Osadchiy told reporters.
Japanese media reported earlier that around 10,000 people were tested for radiation exposure among those who have visited health facilities and evacuation stations in Fukushima prefecture. Only six people were treated for radiation exposure.
(Xinhua News Agency March 17, 2011) |