Vladimir Putin holds a meeting on the accident at the Japanese nuclear power station
The prime minister was shown an on-screen map of the region, which indicated the direction of propagation of radiation and the distance from the Fukushima-1 nuclear power station to the nearest Russian settlement. Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk is 980 km away and Khabarovsk is 1211 km away. Another screen in the Emergency Ministry's situation centre displayed real-time data on radiation levels. The radiation background in the Sakhalin region is still within the norm – in the range of 5 to 16 micro-roentgens per hour. The critical level is 30 micro-roentgens per hour.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's speech at a meeting in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk Emergency Ministry Situation Centre:
Good evening, colleagues.
I will not speak at length about the tragedy that occurred with our friends and neighbours in Japan – all of you know very well what has happened. First, I want to make sure that there is proper control of the situation on Russian territory. What I saw today here in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, in the centre for crisis response, convinces me that it is indeed – operations are running as they should. They are being conducted around the clock, and specialists in all the appropriate agencies are involved.
Nevertheless, let's talk about each territory. I would like to hear from the leaders in the Far East and from the professionals. Two of our colleagues who are nuclear energy specialists returned a few hours ago from Japan, where they had the opportunity to familiarise themselves with the situation, to meet and talk with their counterparts. These are Vladimir Asmolov, deputy director general of Rosenergoatom, a man with extensive experience, including experienced crisis response at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, and Valery Strizhov, deputy director for the development of integrated software systems for safety analysis of nuclear power plants. I first give the floor to Vladimir Asmolov and ask him to say a few words about his impressions of the situation in Japan and to explain his forecast for the medium and long term.
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Vladimir Putin's closing remarks:
Colleagues, we are well aware of what happened in Japan. We sympathise with Japan, the Japanese, all the victims who perished from earthquakes and the tsunamis. And of course, the victims of the disaster at the nuclear power station.
According to all the forecasts by our experts, as practice has shown in the last few days, there was and is a 100 percent probability of aftershocks... Our experts make forecasts, calculate, and map a scenario of for tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, they report, and then we see it in practice – it is happenings in precisely this way. This, of course, is a testament to the level of our nuclear power technology and the level of education of our scientists, and generally to the level of our the Russian schoolingeducation system, first of all.
Secondly, of course, in this regardrespect, we have no reason to doubt these forecasts even for a second, made by our experts.
Thirdly, apparently, with great difficulty, perhaps and maybe with errors – now let's not make jump to any hasty conclusions – our Japanese colleagues are gradually taking control of the situation. Yes, of course, they will be not be able to control it completely, given that they already have a situation at the station, but in general they are gradually regaining control of the situation.
And fourthly, the most important thing – the Russian government and the regional authorities have not put laid out any negative scenario on the table that is downside scenario for the Russian Federation. And today, I reiterate, the situation is nominal. And it can even be said that the radiation levels are even lower than usual in many regions of the Far East.
Nevertheless, we are monitoring the radiation in all areas – background radiation, monitoring and we will continue to monitoring of the goods and people that arrive from Japan must continue. We must be ready prepared with all of our capabilityies in the event of any kind ofnew developments at the Japanese nuclear power station.
I want to thank you all for your professionalism and responsible attitude to your work. Note that all of our agencies are functioning as they should in this situation. This includes both the tsunami warning system and the evacuation plan, plus the evacuation of people in areas with tsunami risk. This also includes being prepared for any adverse developments related to the Japanese nuclear power station. Everything worked. And I want to thank you for that, but please continue focusing on these problems. Thank you very much.
источник новости: http://premier.gov.ru/eng/events/news/14531/
