South Korea will send a radiation specialist to Japan to better protect its earthquake rescue team from radioactive fallout, the government said
Friday.
The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said Chang Jai-kwon, a senior researcher at Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety (KINS), will join the 107-person rescue team operating in the outskirts of Sendai in Miyagi Prefecture.
"After reaching Japan later in the day he will monitor radiation levels and order emergency action if there is a risk of harmful contamination," it said. The ministry said that the National Emergency Management Agency asked the KINS for a specialist to better protect its people.
The area where the South Korean team is operating is about 120 kilometers away from the stricken Fukushima power plant that has been releasing radioactive materials since Saturday.
Related to the dispatch of the radiation specialist, Seoul had sent anti-radiation protective gear and other emergency supplies to its rescue workers on Thursday after a series of
explosions rocked the power plant.
The team had been in the country since Monday to help find survivors of the massive quake and tsunami that devastated northeastern Honshu, Japan last Friday.