The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) took fish samples from a market in Japan’s Fukushima department on Thursday as part of an inspection tour of the local area after water from the damaged nuclear power plant was discharged into the sea.
China and now Russia have suspended imports of Japanese seafood products due to water leaking into the Pacific Ocean from the Fukushima Daiichi power plant site (northeast of Japan), which was devastated by a tsunami in 2011.
This operation, which began at the end of August, is safe for the environment and human health, assures Japan, but also the IAEA, which is monitoring the process.
The water in question – from rain, groundwater or which was used to cool the reactors of the plant that melted down in 2011 – is free of most of its radioactive elements, with the exception of tritium, which is only dangerous in high, concentrated doses.
That’s why Japan dilutes this tritium-rich water with seawater before discharging it into the ocean, discharging only very limited amounts each time – a process expected to last until the 2050s.
The IAEA is constantly monitoring this operation, but this week it also launched a mission to collect and analyze marine samples from the region, working with laboratories from three countries, including China, to verify the compliance of the Japanese data.
“We expect a slight increase in tritium levels in seawater sampled very close to the spill site. But beyond that, no. We should find values that are very similar to what we measured last year,” Paul McGinnity, a scientist on the IAEA team, told reporters on Thursday.
The UN agency is used to inviting several countries to this mission to monitor the marine environment, which it has carried out regularly in Fukushima since 2014. But this is the first time China has been involved.
However, the decision to associate China, South Korea and Canada this year had no political reasons, Mr. McGinnity assured.
The researcher said he hoped the participation of Chinese scientists would help improve transparency on the Fukushima issue, but doubted it could lead to a quick resolution of the Sino-Japanese trade dispute.