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An online network on real-time radiation monitoring is up for launch in 2016 involving the European Union (EU) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
Manila Bulletin learned about this from the Department of Science and Technology’s (DOST) Philippine Nuclear Research Institute (PNRI).
EU representatives and from ASEAN member states Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam have already met twice in 2014 and the latest in Madrid, Spain, recently.
The DOST official declined to be named for not being authorized to speak about the project.
He said the four other ASEAN members, such as Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar will also be joining the regional online network once they are ready.
He said the first six members are more advanced but have been doing it on their own.
“All the work plans, the work programs have been set up,” he added, “it has been formalized, only the signatures are needed.”
“Basically, the EU will help us set up a regional, specifically the ASEAN region, cooperation project on emergency preparedness and response. This is mainly on environmental radiation monitoring in case of an accident,” the PNRI official said.
Through the online network, using equipment and technology, he said, the members will be able to immediately exchange information in case there will be accident that will affect the region.
As of now, he added, each country is acting individually as exemplified by the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan on March 11, 2011 triggered a massive earthquake and a resulting tsunami.
“This will be the first time, using equipment and technology provided by the EU and the IAEA [the ASEAN region can have] an immediate exchange of information. This is online,” he said. IAEA stands for International Atomic Energy Agency.
“It will be a big advantage for the region,” he added.
Much earlier, Dr. Alumanda dela Rosa, director of PNRI, told the Manila Bulletin about the offer of the EU to help in forming the online radiation monitoring network.
She revealed for the first time that the EU had approached members of the ASEAN for a feasibility study to link their real-time online radiation monitoring stations for sharing of data during emergency.
Dela Rosa said the study by the EU was “to establish the connection and so far the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, and Vietnam are on board. We all agreed in principle.”
“We had our kick-off meeting in Brussels (capital of Belgium) in August 2014 and another meeting also in 2014 in Thailand,” she said, adding the feasibility study is an initiative of the EU after the Fukushima nuclear accident.
What happened with the Fukushima nuclear reactor was a wake-up call, she said.
On June 17, she said the European Commission Delegation to the Philippines visited the PNRI to discuss further the feasibility study. The EU also had meetings at the same time with the participating countries, said Dela Rosa.
She said two of the EC officials were Jose Mota, head of delegation, and Robert Frank. (The writer of this story sent a message to Frank, but the email bounced.)
Under discussion included as part of the EU feasibility study is the priority for each participating country.
After the end of the feasibility study this year, Dela Rosa said, “by then the members will decide where the hub will be located, what system (software) to use, and what are the data to be shared.
The EU, she said, already has its members’ radiation monitoring stations linked up using their own platform (software).
“If we agree to use the EU system, then they will provide the platform and the training on how to use their (information technology) system for the link up,” she said.
The PNRI chief said the United States also has its own system.
Dela Rosa thanked the EU for its initiative to help the ASEAN on the response to and prevention of nuclear radiation.
She said it emphasized the urgency of the Philippines’ need to have its own real-time radiation monitoring stations for “ambient radiation, the one that people breath in.”
“Actually, we were lucky that the wind in the first week of the (Fukushima) accident was not blowing towards the Philippines. So, the brunt of the radioactivity did not reach us,” she said.
“When it reached us after two weeks, (the radiation level) was not that high anymore,” she said.
“But we cannot always depend on luck. So, we said we need to establish monitoring stations so we will know immediately if there is an effect and give the necessary recommendations,” she emphasized.
In fact, Dela Rosa said, it is not only the country that felt this urgent need, but “our neighbors in the ASEAN also. They also did the same (putting up monitoring stations).”
“After Fukushima, we all went to the IAEA to get data.” she said. The IAEA is based in Vienna, Austria.
Dela Rosa said the IAEA is helping the PNRI with the radiation monitoring systems.
None of the 10 ASEAN members had its own radiation monitoring station before Fukushima, she said.
It could be recalled that Japan suffered a nuclear disaster of its Fukushima Daiichi plant after it was hit by massive tsunami triggered by a 9.0 magnitude Tohoku earthquake in 2011.
Three of the nuclear plant’s six nuclear reactors suffered a meltdown, releasing large amounts of radioactive materials.
Now, Dela Rosa said, the Philippines has one at the PNRI compound donated by South Korea. It is called the Environmental Radiation Monitor System (EFRD) 3300 that monitors ambient gamma radiation.
Another one installed in Aparri,Cagayan, recently, was donated by the IAEA, the EFRD 3500.
Malaysia and Thailand also have their own now while Indonesia and Vietnam are putting up their own, too, she noted.
Dela Rosa said they are planning to have at least four more radiation monitoring stations in Aparri; Cebu; Palawan; and Davao City. PNRI’s station is the Central Hub.
“We are going to co-locate the stations with PAGASA (Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration) because it has meteorological stations,” the PNRIchief said.
She added that if the PNRI has more funds, the ultimate goal is for radiation monitoring stations in the 17 regions of the country because they have been asking for their own.
“We already have a baseline environmental radiation data base,” said Dela Rosa, because the PNRI has already been collecting data manually.
She stressed the Philippines cannot help it. “Whether we like it or not, we are surrounded by countries with many nuclear plants — China, Taiwan, Korea, and Japan. So we need it.”
Dela Rosa said five radiation monitoring stations would be enough to cover the country to monitor ambient radiation because the planned additional stations are in Philippine territorial borders.
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