BRUSSELS, May 4 (Reuters) – Belgium’s radiation safety regulator has discovered radiation levels surpassing European Union limits on a shipping container from Japan, the agency said on Wednesday.
The agency is decontaminating the container after it found radiation from Cesium-137 being emitted at a level of 0.5 microsieverts per hour in two rust spots.
This exceeds a limit of 0.2 microsieverts per hour suggested by European officials. [ID:nLDE73E18J
However, a spokeswoman for the agency said the discovery poses no danger to people or the environment, and radiation on the rest of the container was at a level of 0.1 microsieverts per hour.
The radioactive container was discovered during routine checks by staff at Zeebrugge port in Belgium on Tuesday.
Much lower levels of radiation were measured on two other containers from the batch which left Yokohama on March 16.
(Reporting by Ben Deighton; Editing by Michael Roddy)
