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By Wendy Zhang | April 1, 2011 4:57 PM IST

Official: Plutonium from Fukushima unlikely to reach HK

The risk of plutonium posing a danger to Hong Kong citizens is negligible, Departmentf Health Senior Physicist KM Cheng said based on updated information.

Reuters and other foreign media are subject to Iranian restrictions on their ability to film or take pictures in Tehran. Russians work in the nuclear power plant in Bushehr, about 1,215 km (755 miles) south of Tehran, November 30, 2009. Russia plans to start up Iran's first nuclear power station in March 2010 to coincide with the Iranian New Year, two sources closely involved with the project told Reuters. Russia agreed in 1995 to build the 1,000 megawatt nuclear power plant at Bushehr on the Gulf coast in south-western Iran, but delays have haunted the $1 billion project and diplomats say Moscow has used it as a lever in relations with Tehran. Picture taken on November 30, 2009.

"Plutonium from the Fukushima accident is extremely unlikely to reach Hong Kong or risk public health," Cheng said, adding "No worries are justified".

Meanwhile, a local media quoted Cheng's remarks that the majority of plutonium element released from reactor would only subside in the circumjacent place instead of spreading through the air, water, etc. Therefore Hong Kong, 3,000 kilometers away from Fukushima, would be immune to the effects of the plutonium contamination there.

"Plutonium is considered to be a human carcinogen by the US Department of Health & Human Services," Cheng said. "Observations in the United Kingdom and the USA among a small number of workers with a lower body burden of plutonium found no convincing health risks linked to the exposure," he added.

Three days ago, Japanese officials released the information that highly toxic plutonium was seeping from the damaged nuclear power plant in Japan's tsunami disaster zone.

Plutonium is a naturally radioactive, silvery, metallic trans-uranic chemical element, with the Chemical symbol Pu and atomic number 94. It occurs in uranium ores and is produced artificially by the neutron bombardment of uranium.

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