http://www.morningstar.co.uk/uk/markets/newsfeeditem.aspx?id=134292890340446
WASHINGTON (AFP)--The U.S. military Wednesday ordered a Marine unit specializing in emergency nuclear response to deploy to Japan to assist local authorities in addressing the massive crisis, officials said.
Some 155 Marines from the service's Chemical Biological Incident Response Force are scheduled to leave the U.S. Thursday and arrive in Japan Friday, a U.S. defense official said.
The CBIRF team, trained in identifying chemical agents, monitoring radiation levels and decontaminating personnel, wouldn't participate in the frenzied efforts to stabilized the reactors of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, crippled by a huge earthquake and tsunami on March 11.
The plant was also hit by several explosions, triggering fears of a catastrophic meltdown as radiation wafted into the air and seeped into the ocean.
U.S. military personnel are currently barred from penetrating a 50-mile radius around the stricken plant, far exceeding the 12-mile exclusion zone imposed by the Japanese government.
Another military official characterized the deployment as "prudent planning," a precautionary move to have the Marines on hand if needed, not an emergency.
The team is "an initial response force," the official added, because it is only one part of the larger CBIRF unit based at the Indian Head Naval Surface Warfare Center in Maryland.
"They would provide radiological expertise to the on-scene commander and, if needed, to the JSDF (Japan Self-Defense Forces) in the areas of medical, logistical, chemical, biological, nuclear and hazardous materials," the official said.
The unit is specially trained to counter the fallout from a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosive incident, usually assisting local, state or federal agencies in their response.
Admiral Robert Willard, who is overseeing U.S. military assistance after Japan's earthquake and tsunami, said March 17 that 450 radiological and disaster specialists were awaiting orders to deploy as Japanese teams tried to cool fuel rods in reactors at the damaged Fukushima plant.
Rear Admiral Scott Swift, director of operations at U.S. Pacific Command, said that around 15,000 U.S. personnel were taking part in the round-the-clock relief operations since the disaster began, as part of a mission dubbed Operation Tomodachi, or "friend."
The U.S. stations some 47,000 troops in Japan, a close U.S. ally which lies near the tense Taiwan Strait and Korean peninsula.
The U.S. military says it has taken more than 50,000 tons of fuel and 650 tons of cargo to areas of northern Japan hit by the earthquake, which has killed more than 11,000 people and left more than 16,000 others missing.
Around a quarter of a million people are living in evacuation centers.
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