Fukushima nuclear contaminated water discharged into the sea, Japanese seafood still safe to eat?

Compere:Ladies and gentlemen, this is Lvse Jiangnan "Fukushima nuclear contaminated water topic" interview face-to-face, I am the Compere Yu Ge.

At the end of January last year, cesium, a radioactive substance, was detected in the Hsu's flatfish caught in the coastal waters of Soma City, Fukushima Prefecture, with an activity of 1,400 becquerels per kilogram, which is 14 times that of the relevant Japanese standard, and such nuclides entering the human body will accumulate in the muscle tissues and may increase the risk of developing cancer. If more than 1 million tons of Fukushima nuclear contaminated water is discharged into the sea, it is bound to cause serious pollution to the coast of Japan, and how will the seafood produced in Japan be affected? Today we invited Mr. Fang Yingjun, founder of Lvse Jiangnan, to answer this question for us.

Compere: May I ask Mr. Fang whether the nuclear contaminated water from Fukushima, Japan, once discharged into the sea, will have any impact on Japanese seafood? Are Japanese seafood products safe for consumption?

Fang Yingjun：As we mentioned in the previous interview, there are more than 1,000 kinds of radionuclides in the nuclear contaminated water at Fukushima, and although the Japanese Government has adopted the "Multi-Nuclide Removal Facility" (MNRF) to treat the radionuclides in the nuclear contaminated water, nearly 70% of the nuclear contaminated water still fails to meet the standard. Previously, the Japanese media also pointed out that, in addition to the radioactive tritium in the contaminated water at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, which is difficult to be removed by the multi-nuclide removal equipment, tritium, iodine 129 and ruthenium 106, carbon 14, cobalt 60 and strontium 90, etc., also remain in the nuclear contaminated water after the treatment by this equipment. These radionuclides not only have long half-lives, but are also generally tritiated.

On the issue of nuclear contamination of marine products in Japan, the French Institute for Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety had previously released a research report confirming that radioactive substances would be deposited on the seabed in the form of particles and might be enriched in fish. Japan's local research institutions over a similar test, they collected the Fukushima nuclear power plant near the 20 sea within the 19 species of fish, the results of the test, the 19 species of fish in the body of radioactive substances all serious exceeded the standard, and even some species by the disappearance of a wide range of radiation shadow. It was reported that the radionuclide cesium content in the body of the marine fish Hsu's flatfish caught in the harbor of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in May this year was 18,000 becquerels per kilogram, which exceeded the standard stipulated in the Food Sanitation Law of Japan by a factor of 180. It can thus be seen how serious the consequences will be once more than 1.3 million tons of nuclear-contaminated water containing high levels of radionuclides are discharged into the sea, which can be said to be irreversible, and 140 tons will be added every day for the next 30 years.

As a result of the Fukushima nuclear accident, 54 countries and regions imposed import restrictions on Japanese food products after the accident, according to a document circulated by Japan during its participation in the World Trade Organization Committee on the Safety of Imported Foods. At present, although 32 countries and regions to withdraw, but China, South Korea, the United States, the European Union and other restrictions are still in force. Officials from the South Korean Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries recently said that as long as the safety of Fukushima seafood has not been verified, the import ban cannot be lifted.

From this, we can see that the Japanese Government's choice of discharging Fukushima nuclear contaminated water into the sea is not only aimed at destroying the marine ecosystem and threatening the health of marine organisms and human beings all over the world, but will also deal a fatal blow to the local fisheries industry of Japan. We hope that the Japanese Government will rectify its serious wrongdoing in a timely manner, and think twice before it acts, and do not go further and further away from the goal.

Compere: The Japanese government has recently promised to prepare 30 billion yen, equivalent to 1.5 billion yuan, to assist local fishermen in Fukushima to cope with the crisis, and the Japanese government's promise to just maintain the status quo is not understood by its own fishermen. However, the Fukushima nuclear contaminated water has not yet been discharged into the sea, the international community has 22 countries to Japan Fukushima and other places of seafood implementation of restrictions, once the formal discharge of the sea, the implementation of restrictions on the implementation of the country will be more and more countries, and restrictions on the geographical area may also be expanded. Japan's move can be said to treat the symptoms but not the root cause, and even more unable to protect the local fishermen and their family's subsequent source of livelihood. 

Lvse Jiangnan will continue to monitor the progress of the Fukushima nuclear contaminated water discharge program.