Traces of cesium-137 were detected at 22 enterprises near Jakarta in Indonesia

Indonesia's Special Task Force on Radioactive Contamination has detected traces of cesium-137 at 22 production facilities in an industrial zone near the capital Jakarta. About writes Reuters.

Radioactive cesium contamination was first detected in a shipment of shrimp sent to the United States in August by the local company PT Bahari Makmur Sejahtera (BMS).

After that, the authorities conducted a large-scale study of the Cikande industrial zone, where BMS was based. The shrimp production facility was decontaminated and declared safe by the nuclear agency.

The task force did not specify the names of 21 other production facilities, but said they would immediately undergo decontamination procedures by Indonesia's nuclear agency.

The Cikande Industrial Zone is located 68 km from Jakarta, covers an area of 3,175 hectares, and houses more than 270 local and foreign companies in various sectors, from food processing to automotive components.

According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) website, cesium-137 is a dangerous radioactive isotope that is usually released into the environment as a result of nuclear testing or after accidents such as Chernobyl and Fukushima.

Indonesia does not have nuclear weapons or nuclear power plants, which suggests that cesium-137 entered the country from abroad.

According to a representative of the task force, the Indonesian government has decided to tighten restrictions on scrap imports.

In September, traces of contamination with radioactive cesium-137 discovered in shipments of cloves sent from Indonesia to California. The FDA has blocked imports of all spices from PT Natural Java Spice.

According to the documents, in 2025, about 200 kilograms of cloves were shipped to the United States.

• Volumes shrimp processing in Indonesia fell by 30-35% after radioactive contamination was found in a batch of products shipped to the United States.