During his visit to Sakhalin Prime Minister Vladimir Putin saw for himself that radiation background was normal and he instructed all services to stay on high alert in case the Japanese Fukushima-1 Nuclear Power Station (NPS) got out of control.
The city market at Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk is busy. The counters are covered with sea cabbage, fresh fish, caviar and frozen seafood. Children chase pigeons on the central square. Every hour a professional radio voice reports the latest status of the city's background radiation.
"Background radiation is normal," the voice says in a comforting tone.
People are busy with their lives. At first glance, things appear routine, but people with dosimeters from the Emergencies Ministry appear inconspicuously in the streets every two hours.
Always surrounded by a curious crowd they explain what their instruments indicate: "Now the dosimeter shows 11 micro Roentgen per hour. The danger level for radiation exposure is 120 micro Roentgen per hour."
"I'm not afraid of radiation," says Oksana, a young mother, instantly calming down. "At first people rushed to buy red wine and iodine but now everyone is calm. They have iodomarine in pharmacies. But why should we be scared at all? Would Putin have come here if the threat were real?"
Late Saturday evening Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Sakhalin Region Governor Alexander Khoroshavin and Gazprom Deputy CEO Alexander Ananenkov commissioned the Dalneye gas distribution station near Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk that will fuel the city's thermal power station-1.
Putin did not plan to hold any meetings on radiation conditions in the Far East that might be due to the accident at the Fukushima-1 NPS, but having arrived on Sakhalin he decided to check whether radiation levels were properly monitored. Rosenergoatom Deputy Director-General Vladimir Asmolov and Deputy Director of the Institute of Nuclear Energy Safety Problems Valery Strizhov had just come back from Japan and Putin immediately summoned them.
"There is no radiation risk. The rest are insinuations," Asmolov said.
Chief Sanitary Inspector Gennady Onishchenko hastened to submit the evidence: "Yesterday we checked two young men who had studied there (in Japan – Izvestia) since August at pre-dose levels. It turned out that they had some substance on their clothes. In the estimate of our physicians and epidemic experts it showed that precipitation near Tokyo did not point to the reactor's meltdown."
Asmolov did not miss an opportunity to criticize the Japanese for their response to the crisis. He said the handling of the accident was not quite adequate, apparently because of Japanese mentality. "We would have reacted very differently," he said.
Asmolov, who has experience with the effects of Chernobyl, explained to both the Russian and the Japanese officials what had to be done.
"It is strange that fire engines were spraying water on the melting rods in the reactors from 50 metres away with the drivers sitting inside. Why didn't they drive closer and stay away?" he asked in surprise. "The attempt to cool the reactors from helicopters was absolutely useless – they never hit anything," he added.
Judging by the report, the Japanese followed the recommendations of the Russian experts and now the "situation is predictable insofar as this accident can be considered predictable." If it is predictable, it can be controlled. Just in case, Rospotrebnadzor (the Federal Consumer Rights Protection and Human Health Control Service) has decided to check food products arriving in the Far East from Japan. All Russian citizens coming home go through mandatory sanitary inspection. There are adequate amounts of water and iodine based medicines in the area.
"Our experts make a forecast, calculate everything and paint a picture of tomorrow and the day after tomorrow and then we see that this is what happens. Government and the regional authorities have not received any indication of a problem on Russian territory," the prime minister summed up. "Nevertheless, we must continue monitoring radiation across the board, checking cargo and people arriving from Japan. We must be prepared for any development surrounding the Japanese NPS."
As for assistance to Japan, Putin suggested increasing supplies of pipeline gas to Europe by 60 million cubic metres per day. The liquefied natural gas (LNG) usually transported by ship would thus be saved and could be redirected to Japan. However, Moscow has not yet discussed this proposal with Tokyo. Putin's Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said this proposal "will be put on the agenda as a priority."
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Prime minister visits Mongol
On the way to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk Prime Minister Vladimir Putin made a refueling stop in Khakasia. He didn't wait in the airport but went on a snowmobile to the republic preserve where scientists are studying the snow leopard. A male leopard named Mongol had just been caught by scientists. "This snow leopard spent half a year with a poaching loop on his neck. Wounds were found on his body. Vets treated him with antibiotics for a couple of days and put a collar on him (with a GLONASS transmitter – Izvestia)," Putin's Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said.
After Putin's departure, Mongol, still recovering from his injuries with a black eye and bright green antiseptic all over his body, was taken to the place where he was trapped, and released. "We hope that in the next two weeks his migration track will appear on Putin's site," Peskov said. The prime minister's site contains migration maps of Amur tigers, white whales and polar bears.
Anastasia Savinykh