Jakarta, hitclubapk3 Indonesia
—
The government destroyed it
5.7 tons of shrimp
from Indonesia which was contaminated with radionuclides
Cesium-137
(Cs-137) after the United States (US) authorities discovered the product.
The destruction was carried out as a follow-up to tests by the Nuclear Energy Regulatory Agency (Bapeten) on two shrimp containers that were declared
suspect
.
Of the total 3,250 shrimp cartons examined, Bapeten found 494 boxes contaminated with Cs-137 on the outer surface of the packaging.
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The wet test results showed that Cs-137 levels in shrimp were 10.8 Bq per kg, far below the clearance level limit of 100 Bq per kg which can still be released into the environment.
Deputy for Pollution and Environmental Damage Control at the Ministry of the Environment (KLH) Ratio Ridho Sani explained that the government was following up on recommendations from the Indonesian Quarantine Agency (Barantin) and Bapeten by destroying all contaminated products.
“As a follow-up to recommendations from Barantin and Bapeten regarding the destruction of shrimp contaminated with Cesium-137, 494 cardboard boxes of contaminated shrimp were destroyed,” he said in an official statement, Saturday (15/11).
He added that the direction of Minister of Environment Hanif Faisol Nurofiq asked that the extermination process be carried out with the precautionary principle.
The shrimp are destroyed using a Vertical Stoker type incinerator at a temperature of 800-900 degrees Celsius, which is equipped with a Continuous Emission Monitoring System (CEMS) system to ensure safe emission control.
The ash from the combustion is then managed through a macro encapsulation process using a solidification method using concrete in a high density polyethylene (HDPE) box, before being placed in a Class 1 landfill operated by PT Prasadha Pamunah Limbah Industri (PPLI).
The destruction was directly supervised by elements of Bapeten, the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), Barantin, and KLH, including Deputy for Nuclear Safety Haendra Subekti and Head of the BRIN Nuclear Energy Research Organization Syaiful Bahri.
Ratio Ridho also reported on developments in mitigating Cs-137 contamination in the Cikande industrial area, Serang.According to him, the decontamination process has shown significant progress.
“Factory facilities contaminated with Cesium 137 have been decontaminated and are operating again,” he said.
Several red zone points, namely locations A, C1, D, H and I, have been declared safe by Bapeten and BRIN.Meanwhile, other locations, such as B, E, F, and F1, are entering the K-350 concrete cementing stage.
At point F2, stripping is being finalized in preparation for cementing.For location C, which is behind the PT VP factory, containment preparations are being made and have been fenced off as a security measure.
In total, 975 tons of contaminated material has been moved to temporary storage facilities at the PT Peter Metal Technology (PMT) location.The government targets the entire decontamination process to be completed by the end of November.
Apart from Cikande, handling of Cs-137 was also carried out in South Lampung.Yudi Pramono from Bapeten said that the location where radioactive exposure was detected in the mediation burial area had been cemented.Exposure at the site has now fallen to below 0.5 μSv per hour, and monitoring will continue.
The Ministry of Industry (Kemenperin) previously reported findings of Cs-137 exposure in 22 companies from the metal smelting sector, B3 waste management, to the food industry.
From the mapping results, the government found exposure to Cs-137 in various types of industry.There are 15 metal smelting industries with exposure levels ranging from 0.18 to 700 microsieverts per hour.
Apart from that, three B3 waste management industries were also detected as having exposure between 0.24 and 0.4 microsieverts per hour.Contamination findings also emerged in three food industries, with higher dose rates, namely between 1.6 and 152 microsieverts per hour.
The government also identified six scrap heap locations that were exposed to Cs-137 with varying levels of exposure, ranging from 11 to 10 thousand microsieverts per hour.
A total of 1,561 workers from the industrial area have undergone health tests.
This case became an international concern after the Netherlands detected exposure to Cs-137 in sneaker boxes from Indonesia, followed by US Customs and Border Protection and US FDA findings in frozen shrimp products produced by PT Bahari Makmur Sejati (BMS Foods).
Investigations by Bapeten and BRIN showed that the contamination came from PT PMT’s steel melting furnace, which was allegedly mixed with medical equipment waste containing Cs-137.
The Ministry of Industry ensures that all metal smelters that use scrap are required to install Radiation Portal Monitoring (RPM) and Continuous Emission Monitoring Systems (CEMS) to prevent similar incidents in the future.
(fra/del/fra)
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