A joint briefing was held today by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) at the JETRO building. The briefing focused on the current nuclear issue and food safety concern, especially of contaminated beef.
1st Session:
Dr. Hiroshi Yamagata of Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) opened the first session by updating the audience of the current radiation standing and the situation at the reactors in Fukushima Prefecture.
According to Dr. Yamagata, STEP 1 of the Roadmap proposed by TEPCO, “radiation dose is in steady decline” has been achieved. Dr. Yamagata points out that the level of radiation leaking from the power plant has seen significant decrease.
He also notes that considerable progress has been made in cooling the damaged reactors. Currently, temperatures of most reactor units are stable at 100˚C and installation of cooling device for all units will be completed by mid-August. With the deployment of water recycle system provided by France and USA, contaminated water leaking from the water pool of the damaged reactors can now be filtered of radiation and reused for cooling purposes.
Having achieved STEP 1, Dr. Yamagata expects STEP 2, “Release of radioactive materials is under control and radiation dose is being significantly held down”, to be completed within the next 3 to 6 months.
View the following link for detail of TEPCO Roadmap;
http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/11041707-e.html
2nd Session:
The second session on food safety focusing especially on contaminated beef was presented by Noriyuki Shikata, Deputy Cabinet Secretary for Public Relations and Director of Global Communications of the Prime Minister’s Office.
Noting that the source of beef contamination was already identified as rice straw contained in cattle feed, Mr. Shikata assured that the Government has set regulations and guidelines to be implemented on cattle feed.
He also mentioned that on a decision made on the 19th of July, the Government has taken precautionary measures and have banned beef produced in the affected regions from the market.
He also assured the audience that all cattle in Japan have individual ID and can be traced in case of incidents such as this one.
Currently, the Government has set 2 steps in cattle and livestock regulations to assure food safety. As step one, all cattle in the affected areas are to be examined of contamination before being placed on the market. As step two, at least one cattle per farm outside the contaminated area must be examined before being sold on the market. The current food safety standard for Japan in regards to radioactive contamination stands at 500bq/kg and is in line with ICRP regulations.
Mr. Shikita also commented that rice straw is only fed to cattle and are not used in other livestock feed. Most other livestock such as pigs and chickens are fed with products mostly imported.
