The amount of radioactive dust released from a crippled Japanese nuclear power plant that will reach Taiwan in the coming days will not pose a health risk, the Atomic Energy Council (AEC) said yesterday.
Based on meteorological conditions, radioactive fallout from Japan that will reach Taiwan on Wednesday will have a radiation level of 0.0638 microsieverts per hour, far below the maximum permissible level of 0.2 microsieverts per hour, said Lee Ruoh-tsann (李若燦), director the AEC’s Department of Radiation Protection.
RADIOACTIVE CLOUD
Yesterday morning, a radioactive cloud was detected over the Pacific Ocean between 300km and 400km off the coast of southern Taiwan, Lee said.
The Government Information Office on Saturday said radioactive dust from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, which was battered by an earthquake and tsunami last month, would reach Taiwan on Wednesday, sparking concern.
However, AEC Deputy Minister Shieh Der-jhy (謝得志) also downplayed the significance of the radioactive cloud.
“There is no need to panic over the radiation leak because the amount is too tiny to be harmful to human health,” Shieh told a press briefing yesterday. “However, it will hurt our farmers and fishermen if we overreact to the leak and stop eating domestic agricultural products and fish.”
Shieh said the radiation level of the fallout from Japan was three-thousandths of the amount given off by a chest X-ray, “so we do not have to worry about it.”
FOOD IS SAFE
Lee also tried to quell fears that foods imported from Japan were dangerous to eat, saying that none of the 721 food items from Japan tested since the nuclear crisis began have been found to have unsafe levels of radioactive substances.
He added that the AEC was planning to strengthen its monitoring of radiation in Taiwan by increasing the frequency of testing for radioactive substances in the air and in agricultural products and fish.
The Taipei City Government yesterday said contractors organizing its New Year’s Eve celebrations would be held responsible after a jumbo screen played a Beijing-ran television channel near the event’s end. An image showing China Central Television (CCTV) Channel 3 being displayed was posted on the social media platform Threads, sparking an outcry on the Internet over Beijing’s alleged political infiltration of the municipal government. A Taipei Department of Information and Tourism spokesman said event workers had made a “grave mistake” and that the Television Broadcasts Satellite (TVBS) group had the contract to operate the screens. The city would apply contractual penalties on TVBS
A new board game set against the backdrop of armed conflict around Taiwan is to be released next month, amid renewed threats from Beijing, inviting players to participate in an imaginary Chinese invasion 20 years from now. China has ramped up military activity close to Taiwan in the past few years, including massing naval forces around the nation. The game, titled 2045, tasks players with navigating the troubles of war using colorful action cards and role-playing as characters involved in operations 10 days before a fictional Chinese invasion of Taiwan. That includes members of the armed forces, Chinese sleeper agents and pro-China politicians
The lowest temperature in a low-lying area recorded early yesterday morning was in Miaoli County’s Gongguan Township (公館), at 6.8°C, due to a strong cold air mass and the effect of radiative cooling, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. In other areas, Chiayi’s East District (東區) recorded a low of 8.2°C and Yunlin County’s Huwei Township (虎尾) recorded 8.5°C, CWA data showed. The cold air mass was at its strongest from Saturday night to the early hours of yesterday. It brought temperatures down to 9°C to 11°C in areas across the nation and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties,
STAY VIGILANT: When experiencing symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning, such as dizziness or fatigue, near a water heater, open windows and doors to ventilate the area Rooftop flue water heaters should only be installed outdoors or in properly ventilated areas to prevent toxic gas from building up, the Yilan County Fire Department said, after a man in Taipei died of carbon monoxide poisoning on Monday last week. The 39-year-old man, surnamed Chen (陳), an assistant professor at Providence University in Taichung, was at his Taipei home for the holidays when the incident occurred, news reports said. He was taking a shower in the bathroom of a rooftop addition when carbon monoxide — a poisonous byproduct of combustion — leaked from a water heater installed in a poorly ventilated
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