Complete! 22 Radiation-Defamited Factories In Cikande Finally Clean From Cs-137

Officers from the Task Force for Handling Cesium 137 (Cs-137) collected contaminated materials in the Cikande Modern Industrial Estate, Serang Regency, Banten. BETWEEN ANTARA/HO-KLH

TANGERANG - The Cesium-137 Handling Task Force (Cs-137) has completed the decontamination process at 22 factories that were polluted with radioactive substances and transferred 558.8 tons of contaminated material in the Cikande Modern Industrial Estate, Serang Regency, Banten.

"To protect public health and safety, decontamination activities outside the factory, especially in the red zone, including settlements, stalls and vacant land, are intensively being carried out by the Task Force," said Deputy for Control of Pollution and Environmental Damage of the Ministry of Environment (KLH) who is also the Head of Mitigation and Handling of the Cs-137 Task Force, Ratio Ridho Sani, Antara, Thursday, October 30.

The ratio explains that mitigation and decontamination activities continue to be carried out intensively. A total of 22 factories detected exposure to Cs-137 radiation have been successfully decontaminated by the Task Force.

The factories can now resume operations after cleaning is carried out by KBRN Gegana Polri, with supervision from the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) and the Nuclear Energy Supervisory Agency (Bapeten).

According to Rasio, Cesium-137 contamination in the red zone is caused by the use of metal smelting waste (slag) which is contaminated with radioactiveity, used by the community as raw material. Of the 12 locations identified in the red zone, five have been successfully decontaminated, while the other seven locations are still in the process of intensive cleaning.

The cleaning and moving of the contaminated niruk material was carried out by the Nubika team, the Indonesian Army Engineer and KBRN Gegana Brimob Polri. Until now, the decontamination material that has been moved from factories and the red zone has reached 275.87 cubic meters or the equivalent of 558.8 tons.

The entire process is carried out in accordance with the radiation safety protocol controlled by the Radiation Protection Officer (PPR) of BRIN and Bapeten.

In addition, another important progress in mitigating Cs-137 was the inspection of 36,769 vehicles using the Radiation Portal Monitoring (RPM) operated by BRIN and KBRN Gegana Brimob Polri.

"Since October 17, 2025, no more vehicles have been detected containing Cesium-137. This shows indications of a decrease in the spread of radioactive matter through the air (airborne) in the Cikande area," said Rasio.

He emphasized that this progress in handling shows the government's commitment and seriousness in protecting the public from the dangers of radiation. "We appreciate the support of all parties and residents in supporting this mitigation and acceleration of decontamination," said Rasio Ridho Sani.