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The
study by the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog is the first since the
water release began in August, a move that drew criticism from
local fisherman and prompted China to ban all imports of marine
products from Japan over food safety fears.
Scientists from China, South Korea and Canada observed the
collection of fish samples delivered fresh off the boat at
Hisanohama port, about 50 kilometers south of the plant which
was destroyed in the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
The samples will be sent to laboratories in each country for
independent testing, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
said.
"The Japanese government has requested that we do this and one
of the reasons they want us to do this is to try and strengthen
confidence in the data that Japan is producing," said Paul
McGinnity, a research scientist with the IAEA overseeing the
survey.
More than a million metric tons of water - enough to fill 500
Olympic-sized smimming pools - was contaminated from contact
with fuel rods at the reactor following the 2011 disaster.
Before being released, the water is filtered to remove isotopes,
leaving only tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen that is
hard to separate, plant operator Tepco says. The water is also
diluted until tritium levels fall below regulatory limits.
Tritium is considered to be relatively harmless because its
radiation is not energetic enough to penetrate human skin;
however, when ingested at levels above those in the released
water it can raise cancer risks, a Scientific American article
said in 2014.
(Reporting by Reuters staff; Writing by John Geddie; Editing by
Bernadette Baum)
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