Firm’s panels will detect radiation levels in Japan
8:57am Friday 25th March 2011 in Business News
A BOLTON firm is helping people in Japan detect radiation levels, following problems with the Fukushima nuclear plant after the devastating earthquake and tsunami.
Assembly Solutions Ltd (ASL), based in Watermead Works, Bolton town centre, has won a contract the supply 50 panels, which will be used to detect radiation leaks in the devastated country.
ASL’s managing director Graham Balshaw said: “The recent events in Japan have been catastrophic, and equipment for detecting leaks is in serious demand.”
The firm has been given the contract to build the equipment by Canberra, which is owned by nuclear giant AREVA, and is based in Oxford.
The hardware works by sucking in air through a valve and testing it for three different kinds of radiation: alpha particles, beta particles, and gamma waves.
“Background radiation is always there, but, as soon as you get to more dangerous levels, you start to panic,” said Mr Balshaw.
Each panel is about the size of a desktop computer and has red, yellow and green lights to show how much background radiation an area contains.
The panels will be connected to a monitoring system that can shut doors and set off alarms.
The Canberra contract is worth about £25,000 to ASL, which is also building a further 150 panels for use elsewhere.
“A lot of these get sold at places like Sellafield, where they are closing down facilities,” said Mr Balshaw.
“The radiation can be buried within bricks and all sorts of nooks and crannies.
“When they are knocking down a building, they have to be careful to monitor every corner for problems.”
Authorities in Japan has now warned that Tokyo’s tap water is not safe for babies under the age of one to drink because radiation from the quake-hit nuclear plant has affected the capital’s water supply.
Radioactive iodine levels in some areas are twice the recommended safe level.
People in Fukushima prefecture, where the nuclear plant is located, have been told not to eat certain vegetables because of contamination worries.
Workers have been temporarily evacuated from the plant after black smoke was seen rising from reactor number three.
Engineers have been trying to cool the reactors and spent fuels rods to avoid a major release of radiation after power to the cooling systems was knocked out by the earthquake and tsunami.
