MOSCOW, September 5 (RIA Novosti) – The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Japan are set to jointly carry out water sampling in areas that cover the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, reads the IAEA’s statement published on Friday.
“Two IAEA experts will visit Japan from 8 to 14 September 2014 to collect water samples from the sea near TEPCO's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, in an exercise to support high-quality sampling and analysis of radioactivity data by the responsible authorities in Japan,” the statement reads.
The IAEA reports that the water samples to be collected will be exchanged between the IAEA and Japan for the purposes of an independent analysis by both sides. The results will later be cross-checked to assess the credibility of the data.
The upcoming monitoring has been propelled by an earlier observation mission, which highlighted the need to conduct inter-laboratory checks in the name of “greater transparency and confidence in the marine monitoring results.”
On March 2011, the Fukushima nuclear power plant was hit by a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and a subsequent tsunami, which caused a partial meltdown of three of the plant’s nuclear reactors. The radiation from the plant leaked into the atmosphere, soil and sea.
The incident is the worst nuclear disaster since the Chernobyl catastrophe of 1986.
