“I’m afraid to eat sashimi because I’m scared”…日Fish caught offshore ‘shocking’

Radioactive substances far exceeding the standard have been detected in fish caught off the coast of Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant ahead of the discharge of contaminated water, the토토사이트 Kyodo news agency reported on Nov. 6.

TEPCO tested rockfish caught off the coast of the Fukushima nuclear plant last month and found 18,000 becquerels of cesium, 180 times the standard of 100 becquerels (Bq) per kilogram set by Japan’s food hygiene law, according to Kyodo.

In April, fish caught at the same location had 1,200 becquerels of cesium, 12 times the standard.

The news agency attributed the high levels to the fact that the fish were caught on the seaward side of the seawall of units 1 through 4.

TEPCO said it is taking measures to prevent the fish from leaving the harbor, including installing multiple nets.

Meanwhile, seawater has been injected into an undersea tunnel used to discharge contaminated water from Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the ocean, marking the end of the first phase of the discharge.

TEPCO began the work of injecting about 6,000 tons of seawater into the submarine tunnel from both land and sea the day before and finished it this morning, NHK reported. The submarine tunnel, which is 1030 meters long in total, was completed on April 25.

The tunnel construction will be completed once the heavy equipment used to dig the tunnel is retrieved. Contaminated water will be discharged through the tunnel into the sea in front of the plant.

TEPCO plans to complete all work to discharge the contaminated water to the ocean by the end of this month by finishing construction of some of the tanks that are in the final stages of sending the contaminated water to the submarine tunnel.

The Japanese government plans to begin discharging contaminated water into the ocean this summer.

An International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspection team visited Japan last week to complete a comprehensive verification process and is expected to release its final report sometime this month before Japan releases the contaminated water.

The final report is expected to recognize the plan to discharge the contaminated water.