Safety measures: Nuclear authority offers help to Japan

PNRA advises Energy Commission to revisit safety aspects of power plants.

ISLAMABAD:

The Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority (PNRA) has offered assistance and support to Japan through the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Response Assistance Network. The PNRA is following the events at the Japanese nuclear power plants at Fukushima-1 after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

According to a press release, like other nuclear regulatory authorities in the world, the PNRA has advised the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) to revisit the safety aspects of the nuclear power plants in Karachi and Chashma with reference to site studies, safety systems, operators’ training, emergency power systems, off-site emergency preparedness plans, etc.

The PNRA will continue to study the accident at Fukushima and the response of the Japanese and other regulatory authorities and may ask PAEC to take additional measures, the statement added. The PNRA said, “The PAEC-operated nuclear power plants meet the requirements of national nuclear regulations which are at par with the international requirements and do not pose any unwarranted radiation hazard to the public or the environment.”

Due to the geographical differences between Pakistan and Japan, the likelihood of similar natural events occurring in the vicinity of our nuclear power plants is quite small, the statement said, adding that the PAEC had been advised to prepare itself for other natural extreme events or man-made accidents. The PNRA assured that based on the information being received here, the accident at Fukushima did not pose any direct risk to the public or the environment of Pakistan.

According to the Pakistan Meteorological Department, the radioactivity released will be mixed with the jet streams at very high altitudes which move in the eastern direction. “The PNRA is continuously performing environmental monitoring throughout the country to assess any change in the natural radioactivity level and no change has so far been observed in the environment radioactivity level,” it added.

The statement said that if air sampling monitors detect any change in the radioactivity level, then the PNRA would issue appropriate advisories for the public through print and electronic media and on its website: www.pnra.org.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 5^th,  2011.