GOVPH

• The DOST-PNRI continues to closely monitor the situation at the Fukushima-Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.
• The condition in the plant remains very serious but is slowly getting better. Some of the highly contaminated water has been transferred to secure storage tanks. Remotely controlled equipment are being used to clear contaminated rubble. The radiation levels inside the plant and surrounding prefectures are steadily going down.
• The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) of Japan had raised its provisional rating of the severity of the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant from Level 5 to Level 7 under the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES). This new rating considers the accidents that occurred at Units 1, 2 and 3 as a single event on INES and is based on the estimated total release to the environment since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
• This new rating does not represent a worsening of the situation at the nuclear plant but a reassessment of overall radioactivity releases. Although small releases are still happening, the great bulk of the radioactivity releases to the environment happened during the first week of the accident.
• The INES rating is not an alert level like a typhoon signal or a volcano alert level and is not intended to be used as a basis for emergency response. On the other hand, the INES rating is similar to the MAGNITUDE SCALE for earthquakes.
• The radiological and safety impact on the Philippines REMAINS INSIGNIFICANT as it had been since the beginning.
• The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) air monitoring station in the Philippines being serviced by the DOST-PNRI detected the following radioactivity concentrations:

*microbecquerels per cubic meter; 1 microbecquerel = 1 x 10^-6 becquerel 

• The peak values on March 24 correspond to a dose of 131 nanosieverts in a year; sleeping next to someone for 8 hours a day for one year gives a dose of 20,000 nanosieverts because of the natural radioactivity present in the body.
• Activity Concentration of Soil Samples taken from PNRI grounds:

Activity Concentration of Water Samples taken from Cagayan and La Mesa Dam:

Activity Concentration of Samples taken from Cagayan:

** The Cesium-137 levels in the soil, water and fish samples are way below the safe levels. The Cesium-137 is residual activity from atmospheric nuclear weapons testing in the 1950’s and 1960’s and not from the Fukushima accident.

***millibecquerels per liter; 1 millibecquerel = 1 x 10^-3 becquerel; some copies of Information Bulletin No.22 may have erroneously stated this as Bq/kg instead of mBq/L

• Latest DOST-PNRI RADIATION LEVEL CHECK at PNRI grounds as of 9:00 AM, April 14, 2011: 110 nSv/hr (nanosieverts per hour), STATUS: NORMAL

• For the latest information, please access the following websites:
  • International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) (http://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/tsunamiupdate01.html)
  • Nuclear and Industrial Safety Administration (NISA) of Japan (www.nisa.meti.go.jp/english/index.html)
  • World Health Organization (http://www.who.int/hac/crises/jpn/en/index.html)
• For further advisories, please call the PNRI trunklines with Tel Nos. 929-6010 to 19 or visit the following:
  • DOST (www.dost.gov.ph)
  • PNRI (www.pnri.dost.gov.ph)
  • STII (www.stii.dost.gov.ph)