Still Minimal impact on Macao from the leakage of the Nuclear Power Plant in Japan (16 March 2011, 17:00)

Upon the series of Nuclear Power incidents occurred at Fukushima Prefecture Nuclear Power Plant No. 1 in Japan, the Macao Meteorological Bureau has been monitoring closely for any alteration of the radiation level in Macao and so far no abnormalities has been discovered. At the same time, the World Meteorological Organization has already activated its Environmental Emergency Response operation. According to the latest forecasts conducted today (16th) by the two Regional Specialized Meteorological Centres including Beijing and Tokyo, areas affected by nuclear radiation for the next two days are still limited to the eastern part of Japan and the Northern Pacific to the east of Japan. Thus this nuclear incident is not expected to affect Macao directly and we are still safe from that. According to the monitoring data of Gamma Radiation recorded for the past 24 hours (15th March 15:01 till 16th March 15:00) by the Taipa Grande Station of the Macao Meteorological Bureau, the Gamma-ray absorbed dose rate per minute ranges between 0.1187 and 0.1414μGy/h (micro Gray / hour) which is far more below the warning level of 0.35μGy/h. Besides, the radiation level in Macao has always been within the normal level with no abnormalities found since the very beginning of this incident. The Macao Meteorological Bureau will continue to pay close attention to this nuclear incident and monitor for any possible impact on Macao. If any abnormalities being discovered, we will release related message to the public immediately and inform relevant government departments to adopt relative contingency measures.