Emergencies
Nuclear accident in Japan
The earthquake and tsunami in Japan on 11th March 2011 led to an accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant. Below are links to our press releases and some questions, asked by the public, and answers by us.
RPII’s Environmental monitoring programme
The RPII carries out rigorous and continuous testing to ensure that environmental radiation remains within internationally agreed and legal safety limits. These tests ensure that we are quickly aware of any change in environmental radiation in Ireland, and able to provide any necessary advice to the public and Government.
The key elements of the RPII monitoring programme are:
- Assessment of ambient radioactivity based on measurements of radioactivity in air and of external gamma dose rate from a network of permanent monitoring stations located throughout the country.
- Assessment of levels of radioactivity in a variety of food products and drinking water
- Assessment of levels of radioactivity in the Irish marine environment based on sampling and measurement of seawater, sediment, seaweed, fish and shellfish
The programme combines round-the-clock measurements from the permanent monitoring network and a programme of sampling followed by laboratory testing.
The following are the results of our environmental monitoring
Gamma dose rate data:
Data from the gamma monitors is continuously fed back to a central computer at RPII and displayed on the RPII’s website: http://www.rpii.ie/Monitoring-Stations.aspx
No elevated results have been detected or are expected on this network – the dose rate from the radioactivity from the Fukushima accident is within the normal variation in background levels.
Air monitoring data:
The latest air monitoring results contain a statement on the results and a brief discussion about the data.
Rainwater monitoring data:
The latest rainwater monitoring results contain a statement on the results and a brief discussion about the data.
Milk monitoring data:
The latest milk monitoring results contain a statement on the results and a brief discussion about the data.
The following are links to press releases issued by the RPII since the crisis began:
April 6th
April 1st
March 29th
March 24th
March 18th
March 17th
March 16th
March15th
March 14th
March 12th
The following is a link to some typical questions posed by the public and our answers:
Frequently asked questions