By Sarwar Kashani
New Delhi, March 16 (IANS) India Wednesday started checking travellers and goods from Japan for possible radioactive contamination as the nuclear crisis in the East Asian country escalated following last week's devastating earthquake and tsunami, knowledgeable sources said.
National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) sources told IANS that checkpoints had been established at the Delhi and Mumbai airports for checking incoming travellers and their luggage from Japan.
The checks are being carried out by the Nuclear Disaster Core Group, which is part of the NDMA. It is headed by Major General (retd) J.K. Bansal.
"The group is coordinating with the DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation) and BARC (Bhabha Atomic Research Centre). Teams have been sent to the Delhi and Mumbai airports to check the passengers coming in from Japan," an NDMA official told IANS.
The teams are equipped with radioactive material detection systems and are setting up checkpoints at the airports. "This is being done in light of a potential widespread radiation release in Japan from the Fukushima Daichi nuclear plant," the official said.
The sources said that radiation detective equipments would be integrated with X-ray baggage machines at the airports.
He, however, said there was no need to panic as it was "an exercise in precaution as was done when the Chernobyl (nuclear disaster in Ukraine) happened in 1986".
The Fukushima nuclear facility in Japan was been hit by a series of explosions and fires after Friday's magnitude-9 earthquake triggering tsunami.
The crisis escalated after a fresh fire broke out at the plant Wednesday - a day after radiation levels around the site plant rose to dangerous levels. There were fears that the emergency workers could face long term health issues.
NDMA officials ruled out the possibility "as of now" that the fallout from Japan's stricken plant could be blown towards India even as authorities had to step up monitoring "in preparation for the worst-case scenario".
The NGO Greenpeace, involved in the anti-nuclear campaign, said record high levels of radiation have now been found near the Fukushima nuclear facility following explosions at reactors 1, 2, 3 and 4.
"Radiation 9 times the background levels have been found near Tokyo. A critical factor (to judge possible damage to the environment from the radiation leak) now is wind direction," the NGO said. The wind over the damaged nuclear complex was blowing from the west pushing any radioactivity toward the ocean.