The government's Nuclear Emergency Response Headquarters lifted Tuesday the last shipment restriction on fish species caught off Fukushima Prefecture, resulting in all 44 species becoming available for consumers for the first time since the accident at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in March 2011.
Test operations involving a limited number of fishing trips have been conducted since June 2012. Discussions on the resumption of full operations are expected to intensify.
After the nuclear accident, the central government restricted the shipment of 44 kinds of fish caught off the prefecture, as those fish had been found to exceed the legal limit of 100 becquerels per kilogram of radioactive cesium. Since then, the government has in stages lifted the shipping ban on fish species whose safety was confirmed by further tests.
In January of last year, shipments of a type of stingray were not lifted, as it exceeded the safety threshold in the inspections. But all of the 1,008 samples examined by February of this year fell far below the threshold, so it was judged safe.
Meanwhile, at the Fukushima No. 1 plant, a large amount of treated water is stored in tanks. It is expected to reach its limit in the summer of 2022.
A panel of experts at the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry submitted on Feb. 10 two proposals to the government: releasing the water into the sea or into the atmosphere. Fishermen in the prefecture are opposed to the ocean release.
Read more from The Japan News at https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/
