A special government taskforce responsible for the issue announced on Wednesday that Indonesia will conduct further tests on footwear returned from the United States after claims they were contaminated with radioactive Caesium 137.

Bara Hasibuan said, "We received reports that footwear exported to the United States was contaminated."

He said, "After the investigations, we found that two containers were suspected of having Cs-137. They were returned to Indonesia."

He said that the footwear products were manufactured by a company with initials "NM" located in Cikande, but outside of the Modern Cikande Industrial Estate. This area is about 68 km from Jakarta and considered the epicenter of radioactive contamination.

Hasibuan stated that the first container of shoes arrived in Indonesia one month ago, and it has not yet been inspected.

The nuclear agency inspected the second container and found no Caesium 137 on the surface. It is safe to store it at the port.

Hasibuan confirmed that tests are now being conducted on the footwear inside the container. They added that the contamination is airborne, and likely originated from a scrap metal plant inside the industrial estate.

A local company first discovered the contamination in shrimp that was shipped to the United States by them in August. The United States has introduced new certification requirements on imports of spices and shrimp from Indonesia.

The task force said that it has also completed the decontamination of 22 facilities in the industrial estate, where Caesium 137 had been detected.

Caesium 137 is released into the environment by past nuclear accidents and tests, such as Chernobyl. It's also used for industrial purposes like oil well logging.

Indonesia does not have nuclear weapons or power plants. (Reporting and editing by David Stanway; Dewi Kurniawati)

(source: Reuters)