MOSCOW, October 20 (RIA Novosti) - Russian specialists inspecting radiation levels near the Fukushima-1 power plant have resumed work in the Pacific Ocean, the head of Russia's Radium Institute laboratory told RIA Novosti Monday.
"The group of specialists, from Rosatom [Russia's state nuclear corporation], has resumed collecting sea water samples in order to analyze the levels of radioactive ions," Stanislav Shabalev from the V. G. Khlopin Radium Institute said.
He added that the analysis is being carried out in an on board laboratory where scientists and researchers are measuring the content of cesium and tritium in the samples.
"We are measuring the rate of gamma ray emissions. All the tests made on board show that there are no anomalies," Shabalev said.
Specialists from the V.G. Khlopin Radium Institute, the Russian hydrometeorology and environmental monitoring service Roshydromet, the Russian Defense Ministry, Russia's public health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor and Admiral Nevelskoy Maritime State University are all taking part in the inspection. The research had previously been put on hold due to the Vongfong typhoon.
In March 2011, the Fukushima nuclear power plant was hit by an earthquake and a subsequent tsunami, which caused a partial meltdown of several nuclear reactors and saw radiation leak into the atmosphere, soil and sea. The Japanese government intends to complete the Fukushima decontamination program by 2017.
