Rosatom is conducting a check of all Russian nuclear power plants as to how well they would be able to withstand natural and man-made disasters.

“We have begun this work,” Rosatom chief Sergei Kiriyenko said at a session of the Russian Security Council. “We are checking the readiness of the nuclear power plants to react to all external factors that might emerge and are conducting an audit of all nuclear plant construction projects in Russia and abroad,” he said.

The vulnerability to earthquakes is receiving special attention, he said, adding that under Russian law, nuclear plants may not be built at sites that are subject to seismic activity in excess of 8 on the Richter scale.

At sites outside Russia, Russian nuclear plants are built with doubly redundant safety systems, he said.

Kiriyenko also said that there has been no radioactive contamination in Russia’s Far East in connection with the disaster in Japan, and modeling of even the most pessimistic scenario indicated there would be no radiation threat to Russia, he said.

“We modeled the worst-case scenario, an absolutely dramatic outcome: core meltdowns at all six of the [Fukushima] reactors and in all the pools where spent fuel is kept, with discharges into the atmosphere,” he said.

“Even in that model, with the maximum discharge, and with the wind shifting to [Russia’s] Far East at high speed, with rain falling as soon as it hits Russian territory. Even in that unimaginably unfavorable scenario – what could be worse? – even in that situation there is no threat, far from reaching the lower end of the acceptable dosage, an order of magnitude below that, where there is no need for cautionary measures, for iodine solutions, evacuations, etc.,” he said.

“I can say in all seriousness, that the only risk is on the psychological level,” he said. “The only thing threatening health would be to give children too much iodine out of fear, or to take too much yourself.”

The Emergency Situations Ministry provides online monitoring of background radiation in the Far East, so that the public is aware of exactly what the situation is at any time.

Rosatom specialists are in constant contact with their representatives in Japan and are exchanging information with their American colleagues. “Our calculations are very similar,” Kiriyenko said, noting that the Fukushima reactors were U.S.-built.

The situation at Fukushima is certainly difficult. “The American designers and the Japanese operator did not foresee a simultaneous earthquake and a tsunami,” he said. “Moreover, in the immediate aftermath of the natural disaster, the scale of damage was underestimated, and time was wasted,” he said.

“The situation remains grave and continues to develop along the worst path,” he said. “The measures being undertaken by our Japanese colleagues are slowing the pace of development, but not stopping it, not moving the situation in the opposite direction. Unfortunately, it’s not working out,” he said. “In the past few days fuel has been melting in the reactors and in the storage pools. That is an especially serious contribution to radioactive discharge into the atmosphere, since the pools are located outside the containment structure,” the Russian official noted.