Japanese ship to be tested for radiation

By Ben Langford
Updated November 6 2012 - 2:15am, first published June 21 2011 - 11:06am
The Maritime Union of Australia has asked the nuclear safety agency to check a load of Japanese cars arriving in Port Kembla.
The Maritime Union of Australia has asked the nuclear safety agency to check a load of Japanese cars arriving in Port Kembla.
The Trans Future 7 is due in tomorrow and its cargo of cars will be tested for radiation.
The Trans Future 7 is due in tomorrow and its cargo of cars will be tested for radiation.

A ship laden with cars from Japan will be checked for radiation tomorrow at Port Kembla after the Maritime Union of Australia pressured the nuclear safety agency to act.But another ship from Japan is due to arrive on Friday and there appears to be no plan to test that vessel for radiation.Technicians from the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) will tomorrow inspect a selection of the 800 cars on board the ship Trans Future 7, when it arrives from Yokohama via Brisbane.MUA Southern NSW branch secretary Garry Keane said his members had been increasingly concerned about potential radiation from Japanese imports since the earthquake and tsunami caused a meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in March.Members of the public also had been calling his union, concerned their new Toyota or Mitsubishi might be exposing them to dangerous levels of radiation."It was raised by the guys who are unloading the cargo," he said. "Hopefully the testing comes back negative or normal levels. But we need to know that for our peace of mind."Authorities have no plans to test any more ships, and many vessels from Japan have already been unloaded without testing."They should be doing boat testing across the board and should have been for some time," Mr Keane said. "At times we've had two or three here in two days from Japan."Concerns grew in May when cars shipped from Yokohama registered elevated radiation levels after they were tested in Chile.On Friday the Falcon Trader II arrives in Port Kembla from Susaki in southern Japan.The Port Kembla Port Corporation did not respond to requests for information on how many ships had arrived from Japan since the Fukushima meltdown.Yesterday a load of Toyota and Mitsubishi cars was sitting on the dock at Port Kembla after being unloaded from the vessel Canopus Leader, owned by the Nippon Yusen Kaisha line.ARPANSA acting head of radiation health Peter Johnston has already said he thought the tests would give the all-clear."We're not expecting to find anything, but what we're discussing at the moment is to go on to the ship and monitor a few vehicles before they unload, really to provide reassurance to dock workers," he said.ARPANSA said 30 of the cars on board tomorrow's ship were used, and could have originated in the exclusion zone.

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