Radioactive fish are now being caught by Japanese fishermen near Fukushima:
“Small fish caught in waters off the coast of Ibaraki have been found to contain radioactive cesium above the legal limit. Ibaraki is south of Fukushima prefecture, where the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is located.
Ibaraki Prefecture says 526 becquerels of radioactive cesium was detected in one kilogram of sand lances. The acceptable limit is 500 becquerels. It is the first time that higher-than-permitted levels of radioactive cesium have been found in fish.
All local fishery cooperatives in the prefecture have agreed to suspend sand lance fishing at the request of the prefectural government.”
The leak of highly radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear plant has been stopped for now, but not after radiation readings spiked very high values offshore from the facility.
Radioactive iodine-131 readings taken from seawater near the water intake of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant’s No. 2 reactor reached 7.5 million times the legal limit, Tokyo Electric Power Co. admitted Tuesday.
The sample that yielded the high reading was taken Saturday, before Tepco announced Monday it would start releasing radioactive water into the sea, and experts fear the contamination may spread well beyond Japan’s shores to affect seafood overseas.
The unstoppable radioactive discharge into the Pacific has prompted experts to sound the alarm, as cesium, which has a much longer half-life than iodine, is expected to concentrate in the upper food chain.
