SINGAPORE: The government said that Singapore is not directly impacted by the change in emergency rating by Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA).
The agency raised its provisional rating of the situation at the Fukushima Nuclear Plant from 5 on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES) to 7 on Wednesday morning.
The Singapore government said it will continue with its surveillance and measures to safeguard the public against radioactive contamination. And it will continue to stand ready to step up measures if necessary.
Singapore is located more than 5,000 kilometres away from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.
The statement added that even in the unlikely event that any radioactive plume reaches Singapore, the impact is expected to be inconsequential as the concentration of radioactive substances would be diluted to insignificant levels over the long distance.
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Japan authorities' decision to raise the INES rating is a re-evaluation of an earlier assessment of the accident.
This re-evaluation resulted from an estimate of the total amount of radioactivity released to the environment from the Fukushima Nuclear Plant.
The re-evaluation of the INES rating does not indicate that the situation has worsened. In fact, radiation levels in various prefectures, as reported by the Japanese authorities and the IAEA, did not show any significant changes over the past few days.
