No increase in radiation level in India: AERB

The Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB), which is continuously keeping a watch on the radiation levels in India in the wake of the nuclear crisis in Japan, today said there was no increase in radiation in the country "over and above the natural background".

Data from the Indian Environmental Radiation Monitoring Network (IERMON) till today showed that there has been no increase in radiation levels at various locations within India over and above the natural background, the AERB said in a release.

The data assumes significance as Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) today issued a new revised provisional rating for the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on the IAEA International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES) as Level 7.

NISA has estimated that the amount of radioactive material released to the atmosphere is nearly 10 per cent of the 1986 Chernobyl accident in Russia, which was rated at Level 7 on INES scale, the release said quoting AERB secretary R Bhattacharya.

"We continue to closely follow the events unfolding at the Fukushima nuclear power plants," he said.

"The high-level committee constituted by AERB has already began deliberations in reviewing the safety of Indian nuclear power plants in the light of the accident at Fukushima," he added.