SEOUL -- South Korea said Monday that miniscule amounts of radiation from Japan''s stricken nuclear power plant that had reached the country''s eastern province of Gangwon pose no health and environmental risks.
"The amount of radioactive xenon-133 detected in Gangwon Province between March 23 and 27 is one 23-thousandth of the country''s natural-level radiation standard and does not affect the environment and health," Yun Cheol-ho, director of the Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety (KINS), said in a briefing on Monday.
KINS assumed that the radioactive substance xenon leaked from the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan flew to the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia, circled around the Arctic region and Siberia and moved to South Korea.
The institute plans to collect air samples from its 12 radiation detection stations across the country on a daily basis.
Previously, it was once a week.
(Xinhua)
