Russia Vladivostok Customs: "Japanese Cars Imported with Radiation Levels Exceeding Standards"

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Jae-hee] Radiation exceeding the standard was detected in a Japanese car imported to Vladivostok in Russia's Far East.

According to RIA Novosti on the 22nd, Vladivostok Customs reported that beta radiation exceeding the standard was detected in a Toyota Prius hybrid car that arrived from Japan the previous afternoon.

The customs office stated that products exceeding radiation limits are prohibited from being imported into countries belonging to the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). The EAEU is an economic union consisting of five countries: Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia, and Kyrgyzstan.

According to EAEU standards, the permissible limit for beta radiation is set at 4 Bq (becquerels)/㎠. A becquerel indicates the intensity of radioactivity emitted as atomic nuclei decay.

The customs office said the imported car exceeded this limit and announced that the vehicle will be returned to Japan.

Following the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident in Japan in March 2011, there were a total of 875 cases of radiation exceeding the limit detected in Japanese goods imported to Vladivostok from April 2011 to June 2017, according to customs.

RIA Novosti reported that this is the first time since 2017 that radiation has been detected in a Japanese imported car.

A customs official said, "This case indicates that the aftermath of the Fukushima accident has not completely disappeared."

The customs office reported the radiation excess detection to the supervisory agency, the "Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing" (Rospotrebnadzor).

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.