Taiwan has a system in place to protect the public from radioactive ocean contamination, the Atomic Energy Council (AEC) said, as Japan moves closer to dumping wastewater from the derelict Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant.
The Japanese government in January said that it would in the spring or summer discharge 1.47 million tonnes of water that was contaminated by tritium following a partial meltdown at the plant in 2011.
Although Tokyo said the wastewater had been rendered safe, other countries in the region have protested the decision, citing fears that radioactive contamination could harm fisheries.
Photo: Reuters
The AEC on Saturday said that it has been tracking radioactive particles in seafood and the ocean since 2011, when a multiagency program was launched to protect the public from tritium pollution.
The council examined sand and water samples from Taiwan’s surrounding seas semi-annually or seasonally, while catches of fish were inspected to establish a baseline for the substance in living organisms, it said.
The potential spread of tritium was simulated by models created at other agencies, it said.
Participation from the coast guard and fishers is helping the program reach its aim of collecting 352 seawater samples, 240 catches and 100 imported seafood shipments this year, it added.
The measurements would help develop a color-coded scheme for marine radioactive risk, said Lin Chen-hsuan (林貞絢), a senior technical specialist at the council’s Radiation Protection Department.
The council’s safety limit for tritium in seawater — 1,000 becquerel per liter — is 10 times lower than the international standard for potable water, she said.
Computer simulations have shown that the bulk of the tritium would likely drift away from Taiwanese waters, Central Weather Bureau researcher Deng Ren-hsin (鄧仁星) said.
The models show that 86.9 percent of the substance would be carried east by marine currents and 12.82 percent would move south, while about 0.28 percent would settle in waters surrounding Taiwan, he said.
Northeastern seasonal winds that prevail from October to April are likely to create tritium-bearing surface currents that would arrive in Taiwan within 12 to 18 months following the discharge, he said.
The Fisheries Agency is implementing a system to measure tritium levels in select species of fish in different parts of the sea to safeguard consumers, the agency said.
Tritium is not a substance currently being measured due to the technical difficulties involved in its detection, said Liao Chia-ding, chief of the Food Division at the Food and Drug Administration.
The agency has inspected 220,000 imported food items from Japan and found minor traces of radiation in only 248 items, which were destroyed or returned, he said.
The AEC “deserves credit” for using a stricter tritium standard than the rest of the world, Citizen of the Earth, Taiwan CEO Tsai Chung-yueh (蔡中岳) said.
However, fishing operations in severely affected areas should be ceased altogether, he said.
Additional reporting by Chen Hsin-yu and Yang Yuan-ting
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