U.N. to assess Fukushima fallout effects

VIENNA, Jan. 30 (UPI) -- International experts in Vienna began plotting how they will assess the effects of the 2011 nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant in Japan.

"We are putting together a jigsaw puzzle, evaluating the exposures of the general public, of workers and radiation effects, and looking for the missing pieces," Wolfgang Weiss, chairman of the U.N. Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation, said Monday at the start of a weeklong meeting in Vienna.

Participants at the meeting will examine where critical gaps exist in available information, where further focus in required and how to ensure the basis for the assessment is reliable, the United Nations said Monday in a release.

The power plant was damaged by a massive March 11 earthquake and tsunami, which knocked out water-cooling systems, causing contamination of air, water, plants and animals affected by radioactive plumes around the site.

The committee is receiving its data from Japan, together with input from the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Meteorological Organization, the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, the World Health Organization and the International Atomic Energy Agency.

A preliminary report is expected to be presented at the U.N. Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation's annual meeting in May and a final report will be given to the U.N. General Assembly in 2013.