Greenpeace: High radiation levels detected in Japan seafood

May 26, 2011, 11:18 GMT

Tokyo - High levels of radioactive substances were found in seaweed and other seafood products near a damaged nuclear power station in north-eastern Japan, environmentalists said Thursday.

Greenpeace Japan said it found radioactive substances above the legal limits for consumption in 14 of 21 samples of products that included seaweed, shellfish and fish caught 22 to 60 kilometres from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station.

Since the plant was crippled by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, it has leaked radioactive substances into the environment. In early April, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co started to dump low-level radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean to make room for even more contaminated water that had been leaking into the sea.

Greenpeace found 127,000 becquerels of iodine-131, more than 60 times the legal limit, per kilogram of seaweed near Ena port, 50 kilometres south of the plant, and 20,000 becquerels of iodine-131 per kilogram in seaweed in Nakoso port, about 60 kilometres south of the plant.

The group detected 608 becquerels of caesium-134 and 611 becquerels of caesium-137 in whitebait caught off Nakoso. The legal limit is 500 becquerels.

It also found 646 becquerels of caesium-134 and 639 becquerels of caesium-137 in sea cucumber in Hisanohama port, about 30 kilometres south of Fukushima Daiichi.

Such contamination will add to the already high radiation exposure of those affected by the nuclear crisis, the group said.

Jan van de Putte, a Greenpeace radioactivity safety expert, said he was worried about the 'very high concentrations of iodine' found in seaweed.

That suggested 'significant liquid discharges' of radioactive substances over the last two months, Greenpeace said.

The government had said radioactive materials would significantly dilute by the time they were consumed by marine species, but Greenpeace said it had observed a re-concentration of the substances in the marine environment, calling for long-term research.

Van de Putte also urged the government to release information on the amount of radioactivity and kind of radioactivity released into the ocean from the plant, located 250 kilometres north-east of Tokyo, and the migration mechanism of radioactivity into the sea.

Greenpeace said the group had difficulties in finding a laboratory in Japan to do detailed analysis, so they sent the samples to in labs in France and Belgium.

Japan also denied the group's flagship, the Rainbow Warrior, entry into its territorial waters, so some activists monitored developments on shore near the plant.

Local fishermen and consumers had been at a loss due to absence of credible information, said Wakao Hanaoka, Greenpeace Japan oceans campaigner.

The region's fishermen currently refrain voluntarily from fishing due to radiation contamination, but due to lack of information don't know whether it was safe to take up work again, Hanaoka said.