Relevant institutions in Serbia are on alert and prepared to react if radioactivity increases, the director of the Agency for the protection against ionizing radiation and nuclear safety, Mirjana Radenkovic, said on March 16.

Speaking at a news conference in Belgrade, she said that members of the agency met on March 15 with representatives of the Center for Emergency Situations of the Serbian Interior Ministry, and that response measures will depend on the possible amount and type of radioactivity.

"If anything changes and the early warning systems show increased values, we are absolutely prepared to respond," Radenkovic said, adding that data on radioactivity levels in Serbia are updated every 30 minutes, on the agency website www.srbatom.gov.rs

The dean of the Novi Sad Faculty of Physics, Istvan Bikit, said that normal values for Serbia are around 100 nanosieverts, but that values differ by around 50 percent in different parts of the country.

A cause for concern would be if these normal values doubled, Bikit said.