Some 50 days have passed since the nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant in Japan, and it has become evident that unlike initial concerns about its spillover effects, the accident has not directly harmed neighbouring countries, including Korea.
Nevertheless, anxiety over the situation has led to cancellations of scheduled international events in Japan’s neighbouring countries as well as postponement of trips to East Asian countries. This is presumed to have been driven by overstated and distorted reporting by some media outlets as well as unfounded arguments by environmental groups. Many European and American citizens assume that Korea borders Japan as they are both located in East Asia – a fallacy that needs correcting.
Japan is an island nation located at the east end of East Asia adjacent to the Pacific Ocean, while Korea is a nation in the Asian Continent. The two countries are separated by the large East Sea. The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, where the accident occurred, is situated in the coast adjoining the Pacific Ocean. The plant is 1,200 kilometres away from Seoul, the capital city of Korea, and still 1,100 kilometres further from Busan, a city relatively closer to the plant.
Given the distance, direction of winds, and movement of ocean currents, there is no possibility that a large amount of radioactive materials will reach Korea. The chances for radioactive materials from the plant to be carried to Korea by wind are remote, since the westerlies blow from Korea to Japan all year round. Of course, atmospheric pressure in the spring and summer affects the wind direction at times, allowing it to blow from Japan to Korea locally.
But such wind blows close to the surface and fails to travel a long distance like the westerlies to reach Korea. The direction of ocean currents is similar to that of wind. Flowing past the east coast of Japan, the Kuroshio current travels east to the Pacific ? the Western coasts of the United States ? the Pacific ? the South of Japan. Sea currents off Japan’s northeast coast (the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant is situated nearby) always flow north-eastwards to the Pacific Ocean.
The prevailing view among nuclear experts is that while travelling a distance of 1,000km from the site of accident, either in the air or in the sea, almost all radioactive materials get diluted, leaving behind only minuscule amounts. On the outset of the accident, foreign media and a few think-tanks predicted that Korea would be exposed to massive nuclear fallout, stroking fears among the public and foreigners in Korea alike.
Some governments took such projections seriously to advise their public against visiting Korea, and to step up checks on Korean agricultural imports for possible radiation contamination. Over the past 50 days since the accident, however, only minimal amounts of radioactive materials, harmless to humans, have been detected. The radioactive monitoring results are available online at the the Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety (KINS) website, the results detailing measurements of radioactive materials flowing into Korea on a daily basis since the quake and tsunami hit the Fukushima Daiichi power plant. Critically, KINS has measured nationwide radioactive materials for over a month, and it has never detected radiations at a level high enough to cause harmful effects on humans.
The level of radiation (iodine-131) at the atmosphere of Korea peaked out on April 7 (3.12mBq/?) and has shown a gradual decline. The record currently stands at lower than 0.5mBq/?. Not only in case of the radioactive materials in the atmosphere, but also the amount of radioactive substances in the rain was negligible, while radioactive materials were not detected in either sea water or agricultural products. Results from the simulation assuming the worst case scenario also confirmed that only a minuscule amount of radioactive materials can reach the Korean Peninsula.
The doomsday scenario predicted in Korea is an exaggeration: unlike the time when radioactive materials were first detected on the Korean Peninsula, most foreigners in Korea have regained calm and have returned to their usual daily lives. The number of foreign visitors to Korea, which has temporarily fallen, is increasing again after people realised that the amount of radioactive materials detected in Korea is negligible and causes no harm to the human body. The author is associated with Korea Nuclear Energy Promotion Agency.
