The Monitoring Group received a report from the representative of the Nuclear Safety Council on the latest data regarding the situation at the Japanese nuclear plant provided by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
It was made clear that all the news being received, both of a technical nature and regarding organisational issues among the population, led the Spanish Government to draw positive conclusions on the manner in which the Japanese Government is handling the extremely serious situation currently being experienced by the country.
Spanish community in good health
Following the conversation held on Wednesday morning with the Spanish Ambassador in Tokyo, the representative from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation confirmed that there are no Spanish citizens within a 100-kilometre radius around the stricken nuclear plant nor in the risk zones being defined by the Japanese Government.
Of the almost 2,000 Spanish citizens living in Japan, close to 1,000 of them are in Tokyo. 870 reside in the southern part of the country where no risk whatsoever is present for now and 33 in the northern region. As things stood in the early hours of Wednesday morning, the Embassy had no knowledge of any Spanish citizen experiencing any difficulties.
At this time, the recommendations from the Spanish Government to Spanish citizens in Japan are:
- To follow the instructions issued by the Japanese authorities at all times.
- For those Spanish citizens who wish to return to Spain and are having difficulty doing so on commercial flights, to notify their situation to the Spanish Embassy in Japan, which will provide all assistance possible.
Help to Japan
As previously stated by the President of the Government of Spain, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, the Spanish Government has expressed not only its solidarity to the Japanese Government but also its complete availability to provide any assistance that may be required.
In this regard, the Monitoring Group received information on the steps being taken by the various departments to prepare and make available all such means of assistance as may seem useful given the current situation and that, in any case, would be activated according to the requests made by the Japanese Government.
Instructions to check safety at nuclear power plants
Finally, the representative of the Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Trade in the Monitoring Group reported on the discussions and recommendations arising from the extraordinary meeting called on Tuesday by the Energy Commissioner in Brussels with experts on nuclear energy and safety from all Member States of the European Union.
In line with the discussions at said meeting, the Minister for Industry, Tourism and Trade, Miguel Sebastián, announced on Wednesday that the Government has requested that the Nuclear Safety Council perform checks on the safety systems at all nuclear power plants located in Spain.
The minister reiterated that the Spanish plants are safe and stressed that these additional measures are being adopted to increase the safety conditions even further.
Contact telephone numbers and email addresses for the Spanish Embassy in Tokyo
- Website:
- http://www.maec.es/subwebs/Embajadas/Tokio/es/MenuPpal/Informacion/Paginas/informacion.aspx
- E-mail address: emb.tokio.info@maec.es
- Address: 1-3-29, Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0032
- Consular Services telephone number: 03 3505 8762 (landline)
- Consular Services fax number:
- 03 3582 8627
- 03 3505 8783
You are reminded that these contact details are only to be used by Spanish citizens in Japan
- Other websites:
- Website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation: www.maec.es
- Website of Moncloa Palace: www.la-moncloa.es
EFE