Radioactive rain expected in Korea Thursday

Experts said radioactive materials from Japan`s Fukushima nuclear plant could reach Korea via air currents, with the Korean Peninsula possibly seeing radioactive rain Thursday.

Though the radioactive materials will have little impact on the human body, the Korea Meteorological Administration is under fire for changing its words and giving belated responses.

“The combination of high pressure developing east of the Korean Peninsula and low pressure in the west will create rain nationwide Thursday morning,” Kim Seung-bae, spokesman for the weather authority, said Monday in a briefing at the Education, Science and Technology Ministry. “The air currents that come from east of Japan to the Korean Peninsula will circle clockwise over Korea with the southwest wind and then will move to Japan.”

Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety President Yun Choul-ho also said at the briefing, "The amount of radioactive materials being emitted into the air in Fukushima is declining,” adding, “There will be no health problems at all despite radioactive rain Thursday.”

Lee Seung-suk, director of the National Radiology Emergency Healthcare Center at the Korea Institute of Radiological & Medical Sciences, said, “The amount is minimal so that children, the sick or the elderly need not care about it.”

Koreans have grown skeptical over the weather agency`s competence since it first said on March 13, “Korea will unlikely see radioactive materials because of westerly winds.”

The organization then said on March 29, “Radioactive materials might reach Korea via easterly winds,” then said, “Winds blow directly from Japan.”

The nuclear institute said no radioactive materials were found after it tested tap water in 23 out of 503 water treatment plants across the nation.