Japanese nuclear-polluted tires found in Iraq, gov't says

Japanese nuclear-polluted tires found in Iraq, gov't says

2011-07-26 05:15:38 GMT+7 (ICT)

BAGHDAD (BNO NEWS) -- Iraq's Planning Ministry announced on Monday that a shipment of Japanese tires which bear traces of nuclear pollution were found to have entered the country.

"A shipment of Japanese tires, polluted with nuclear rays coming from Japan, has actually entered Iraq," Iraqi Planning Minister, Ali Shukri, told a news conference in Baghdad on Monday, according to the Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

Shukri said his Ministry has previously signed contracts with a French and a Swiss company to check the goods coming from other countries. "In the event that the two said companies, with whom the said contracts were signed, committed any violations, the Ministry will enforce a penalty of one million U.S. dollars on them," he said.

The Ministry informed all Iraqi trade representations worldwide about its measure, noting that "check up measures will start from now." Shukri did not say where the shipment of tires is now or how high the levels of radiation were.

Japan has been facing an ongoing nuclear crisis since the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was severely damaged on March 11 when an enormous 9.0-magnitude earthquake and a subsequent tsunami devastated the country, killing at least 15,628 people and leaving 4,823 people missing and feared dead.

The disaster, the country's worst since World War II, disabled the cooling systems of the nuclear plant and radioactive elements leaked into the sea and were later found in water, air and food products in some parts of Japan. Other countries have also reported receiving products with traces of nuclear pollution.

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