Thailand’s Office of Atoms for Peace (OAP) has temporarily stationed a team of experts at the foundry in Kabin Buri district of Prachin Buri province, where a metallic cylinder containing caesium-137 had been melted down.
Kitkawin Aramrun, head of the nuclear and radiation emergency operation centre of the OAP, said today (Tuesday) that the experts will conduct radiation checks at the foundry and in its surrounding areas and will plot their readings on a map.
He maintains that, so far, radiation has not been detected outside the compound of the foundry but, more importantly, the experts will carefully check for radiation and will confine the radiation within the compound.
Yesterday, in neighbouring Rayong, the provincial administration ordered about 12.4 tonnes of metallic dust, being kept at a recycling plant, to be sent back to the foundry in Prachin Buri within three days.
The metallic dust is a by-product of the melting of iron scraps at the foundry in Kabin Buri district, which is believed to have melted down the caesium-137 canister, which had disappeared from the steam driven National Power Plant 3 A in Si Maha Phot district.
Kitkawin offered an assurance to members of the public in Rayong and Prachin Buri provinces that radiation from caesium-137 has not leaked out of the foundry.
He also said that OAP officials will contain the large bags containing the metallic dust properly.
