Strongly radioactive fish off Fukushima

Record level of radioactive cesium in fish off Fukushima

22/08/2012

After it was recently announced that about half of all butterflies in the Fukushima region have serious mutations and damages after the nuclear disaster in 2011, announced the power plant operator TepCo on Wednesday, according to Japanese media reports, the next bad news: In marine fish are such high levels of radioactive cesium it has been measured that the threshold fixed by the State and deemed safe for human consumption has been exceeded by 258 times. Also in the upcoming rice harvest, a high radiation exposure of the grain is to be expected. Every bag of rice should be checked by the authorities, according to the media.

Contaminated fish caught 20 kilometers before Fukushima
The full extent of the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant after the tsunami in 2011 is only gradually becoming apparent. As it has now become known, fish caught at a depth of 15 meters at the beginning of August 20 kilometers off the coast of Fukushima are heavily contaminated with radioactivity. According to nuclear power plant operator TepCo, "a value of 25,800 becquerels of radioactive cesium per kilogram of fish was measured in two greenhouses". According to the fish before Fukushima record levels in the radiation exposure. The reading "equals 258 times the amount of cesium that the Japanese government classifies as safe for consumption." Fishing off the coast of Fukushima province has been subject to a voluntary restriction in order to prevent commercialized fish from entering the market.

Only in mid-August, Japanese scientists of Ryukyu University in Okinawa published an investigation in the online journal „Scientific Reports“, according to which an accumulation of malformations and damage occurs in butterflies, which is due to the radioactive radiation of the nuclear disaster in Fukushima. Nearly a year and a half after the meltdown, scientists found that more than half of the region's butterflies today have mutations such as deformed wings or eyes. Although the results are not one-to-one transferable to humans, they did show that the damage occurs not only in the first generation exposed to radiation but also in the second and third generation, the researchers report. Out of the 240 butterflies caught in the region half a year after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, malformations occurred in 52 percent of the offspring.

After a major earthquake shook Japan and especially the Fukushima region on March 11, 2011, a century of tsumami devastated large parts of the region and caused a meltdown in the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Large quantities of radioactive ponds were released into the environment and caused severe damage, not only in Fukushima province.

As the reactor accident in Chernobyl in 1986 shows, such a catastrophe has serious consequences even decades after the event. Nevertheless, a connection between the massive radiation exposure and the high number of cancer cases, reduced fertility and a concomitant decrease in the birth rate as well as more malformations in newborns is still partially denied by the official side. The long-term consequences of Chernobyl are still unpredictable.

Rice harvest probably also heavily contaminated radioactively
Although the situation in the nuclear power plant was officially declared stable, the current radiation findings in the population are causing great concern. For the upcoming rice harvest in the northeast of the country, one of the most important agricultural regions in Japan, the authorities plan to check every single rice bag for its radiation exposure before it goes on sale, according to media reports. In 2011, samples with significantly increased cesium levels were discovered. The government-defined limit currently equals 500 becquerels per kilogram. Starting in October, the limit will be lowered to 100 becquerels across the country, with local authorities in Fukushima province planning to use it earlier and sort out any rice bag that exceeds this mark.

The Japanese government is currently working on a new energy policy. The calls from the population for a nuclear-free energy supply are getting louder. In an official survey of 290 citizens, just under half said they would support nuclear phase-out by 2030. Further governmental options for the future share of nuclear power in energy production are 15 percent or 20 to 25 percent by 2030. (Ag)

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Image: Gerd Altmann, Pixelio.de