Chinese national named as suspect in Indonesian radioactive contamination probe

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JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian authorities on Thursday named a Chinese executive of a metal smelting company as a suspect in a cesium-137 contamination case that resulted in the recall of some exports to the U.S.

Lin Jingzhang, who is a director of PT Peter Metal Technology (PMT), has been designated as a suspect, Bara Hasibuan, a spokesperson for the investigating task force, said.

“The Certain Crimes Directorate of the Indonesian National Police’s Criminal Investigation Unit has named Lin Jingzhang, a citizen of the People’s Republic of China who serves as director of PT. Peter Metal Technology, as a suspect,” said Hasibuan.

Investigators have struggled to contact representatives of the metal-processing factory, which is located on the Cikande Industrial Estate, in Banten province on the island of Java, after the entire management returned to China. However, Lin has agreed to cooperate with the inquiry and will return to Indonesia for questioning, Hasibuan said.

The company, which produces stainless steel from scrap and waste steel, received at least 3,000 tons of raw materials from dozens of suppliers during its 10 months of operations in Indonesia. All of its stainless steel production is exported to China.

“The preliminary conclusion regarding the origin of the cesium-137 contamination...is that it came from a domestic source through the purchase of used goods and scrap, which contained used industrial equipment from within the country that contained cesium 137 obtained legally or illegally, without undergoing proper storage, supervision, and disposal in accordance with applicable regulations,” said Hasibuan.

During the investigation, police discovered that scrap metal collectors who supplied the material were unaware that the scrap metal was contaminated with radioactivity and sold it to smelting companies.

“It was during the smelting process that airborne contamination occurred. That is why we found that the PMT factory’s furnace emitted 700 microsieverts per hour. From this, we concluded that PMT was the source,” said Sardo Sibarani, a police official with the task force.

Investigators have not been able to determine the origin of the waste containing the cesium-137 as only steel slag was found during a series of inspections at the factory site.

The contamination was discovered began earlier this year with an initial report submitted by Dutch authorities over traces of radiation found in shipping containers from Indonesian. The report stated that several boxes of sneakers were found to be contaminated.

In August, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a safety alert warning consumers not to eat certain frozen shrimp imported from PT Bahari Makmur Sejati, a company close to the Cikande Industrial Estate, after cesium-137 was detected in shipping containers it sent to the U.S..

Around 20 factories linked to the Cikande industrial estate were affected, including facilities that process shrimp and make footwear, authorities say. Nine employees working on the industrial estate were detected to have been exposed to cesium-137. They were treated at a government hospital in Jakarta and all contaminated facilities in the industrial area have been decontaminated.