A record quantity of radioactive cesium – 7,400 times the country’s limit deemed safe for human consumption – has been detected in a greenling fish in the waters near the crippled Fukushima plant, two years after the nuclear disaster.
Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), which runs the Fukushima
Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, discovered a record 740,000
becquerels per kilogram of radioactive cesium in the fish, Kyodo
News reported.
The operator installed a net on the seafloor of the port exit
near the plant to prevent the fish from escaping.
The bottom-dwelling greenling fish was found in a cage set up by
TEPCO inside the port next to the Fukushima Daiichi plant, a
utility official told AP on condition of anonymity.
The company also indicated that the previous record of cesium
concentration in fish was 510,000 becquerels per kilogram detected
in another greenling caught in the same area, TEPCO said.
In January, a fish containing over 2,500 times Japan's legal
limit for radiation in seafood was caught in the vicinity of the
nuclear plant, the facility's operator reported.
The March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami damaged the plant,
causing meltdowns that spewed radiation into the surrounding soil
and water. The disaster forced the evacuation of 170,000 local
residents.
Some experts have speculated that radioactive water may be
seeping from the plant into the ocean; this may have been confirmed
after bluefin tuna caught off the coast of California tested
positive for radiation poisoning at the end of February.
Most fish along the Fukushima coast are banned from
market.