Chernobyl and Fukushima meltdowns prompt cooperative agreement on aftermath

[kristopher]

Japan, Ukraine to make pact on N-accidents
The Yomiuri Shimbun

The government has decided to sign a pact with Ukraine to share information on measures against nuclear accidents such as the 1986 Chernobyl catastrophe experienced by the former Soviet Union republic, according to government sources.

Under the envisioned agreement, the two countries will share data and develop countermeasures against the radioactive contamination of soil and the health risks this could pose. The Japanese government aims to use these measures to help it resolve the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant and to improve the safety of nuclear reactors, the sources said.

This will be Japan's first bilateral agreement that focuses exclusively on measures against nuclear accidents, according to the sources.

Ukraine has essentially accepted the pact, and it will begin negotiations with Japan this month toward a formal agreement...

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T120104005302.htm

[FBaggins]

1. Can't imagine why it needs an "agreement"...

... nor why it took more than nine months to occur.

I would have expected a "reaching out" within days of the crisis and ongoing consultation since then.

[kristopher]

2. And what formalizes and institutes such "reaching out"?

An ad hoc group of individuals doing it whenever the urge strikes them?

[Kolesar]

3. It's in the article, my lugubrious-forum-co-participant-friend

The pact will stipulate the two countries are to cooperate in sharing information on how they have responded to nuclear accidents, as well as promoting the exchange of nuclear experts. The shared information is to include how radioactive substances can be removed from farmland, the effects of low-level radiation exposure on the human body, and how patients exposed to radiation can be treated.

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