'Fukushima incident not fully probed'

We believe the Fukushima accident has not received a detailed treatment and the operational problems of the accident have not been disclosed by Japan,” ISNA quoted AEOI Deputy Director Nasser Rastkhah as saying on Saturday.

On March 11, a magnitude 9 earthquake off the northeast coast of Japan's main island set off a devastating tsunami and was followed by more than 50 aftershocks. The incident led to fires, explosions, or partial meltdowns of six reactor units of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant after it knocked out power to the facility's cooling systems.

Rastkhah also referred to radioactive contaminations and exposure of some Fukushima staff to high radiation and pointed out, “There are reports that some of Fukushima staff have received above-normal radiation. Of course, no clinical effects have been observed in these individuals.”

Earlier in June, Japan more than doubled its initial estimate of radiation released from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant in the week after the March 11 tsunami.

Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) said then it believed 770,000 terabecquerels escaped into the atmosphere in the first week -- compared to its earlier estimate of 370,000 terabecquerels.

Contaminated water has spilled or been released several times into the Pacific Ocean, and environmental group Greenpeace has warned that it has found unsafe radiation levels in marine species as far as 50 kilometers offshore.

The Iranian official further said that Japanese officials were not prepared for such catastrophe, adding that authorities in charge of “Fukushima plant do not have required information at the time of the accident, due to a lack of access to the control room.”

The AEOI official noted that the Japanese plant's records also need to be published for a proper assessment of the incident.