Russian Fishery Agency Sees Signals of Harmful Concentrations in Japan's Fishing Zone

SAMARKAND (Sputnik) - The Russian Federal Agency for Fishery (Rosrybolovstvo) has not recorded any deviations from normal indicators in the Russian fishing zone after Japan's release of treated water from the Fukushima power plant, Rosrybolovstvo head said.

"We are closely monitoring our economic [fishing] zone. We have conducted a lot of research since the [2011 nuclear] accident and now [...] The indicators that have we recorded are within the norm, so our fish is clean and safe [...] It is difficult for us to judge what is happening in the Japanese [fishing zone]. But there are already signals that there are certain excess concentration of harmful substances," Ilya Shestakov, Rosrybolovstvo head, told Sputnik on the sidelines of the Eurasian Economic Forum.

On Thursday, Japanese news agency Kyodo reported that the Fukushima NPP's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), had launched the third release of treated water into the ocean. In total, the company plans to release 31,200 tonnes of water by the end of March 2024. To date, TEPCO has successfully completed two water releases.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said that treated wastewater will have a negligible radiological impact on the marine environment and human health, but the water release has caused an outcry from neighboring countries and local fishermen. China has banned all seafood from Japan over concerns about radioactive contamination.

The Fukushima nuclear power plant suffered a meltdown after being hit by a massive tsunami triggered by a 9-magnitude earthquake in 2011. Since then, water has been continuously pumped in to cool the plant's reactors. As of June, around 1,000 tanks of treated wastewater were stored on site.