Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Ludlam for his question. I have been kept up to date with advice from ANSTO. I have not received advice from the CSIRO and ARPANSA reports to another minister. That is fitting because the agency within the innovation portfolio with the relevant nuclear expertise is ANSTO. It provides the specialist expert advice to the government as a whole. This advice is provided through an interdepartmental emergency task force chaired by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. There are detailed briefings made public on these issues, particularly in regard to the current situation, and I understand they have been available on the ARPANSA website.

Regarding the levels of iodine 131 that are exceeding the Japanese government-set levels, there have been detections of iodine 131 in water, milk and spinach collected outside of the 30-kilometre exclusion zone. However, the levels measured are said, according to the advice I have, to pose no immediate threat to human health and will diminish rapidly due to the short half-life of iodine 131. This is obviously a matter that is being continuously monitored and, according to the advice I have been provided, the Japanese government has taken appropriate actions, such as banning the shipment of certain foodstuffs. The levels of radioactivity that have been reported have been detected in seawater in one location near a discharge channel—(Time expired)