Seawater samples taken following the release of wastewater from the crippled Fukushima nuclear reactor showed radioactivity levels well within safe limits, operator TEPCO said on Friday.
The start on Thursday of the discharge of some of the 1.34 million tonnes of water, collected on-site in the 12 years since the plant was swamped by a tsunami, prompted China to ban all Japanese seafood imports.
TEPCO took what it called rapid tests on Thursday afternoon after the release into the Pacific Ocean began, and on Friday it said that the results showed that radioactivity levels were within safe limits.
“We confirmed that the analysed value is equal to the calculated concentration and that the analysed value is below 1,500 bq/L,” TEPCO spokesman Keisuke Matsuo told a news conference.
Becquerels per litre is a measure of radioactivity. The national safety standard is 60,000.
The results were “similar to our previous simulation and sufficiently below” the safety limit, Matsuo added.
“We will continue to conduct analysis every day over the next one month and even after that, maintain our analysis effort,” he said.
“By providing swift, easy-to-understand explanations we hope to dispel various concerns.”
Japan’s environment ministry said it had collected seawater samples from 11 different locations on Friday, results of which would be released on Sunday.
The Fisheries Agency also pulled a flounder and a Gurnard fish early Friday from designated sampling spots near the pipe that released the Fukushima water.
“By publishing those data every day in a highly transparent fashion, we will demonstrate our actions based on scientific evidence,” said Trade and Industry Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura, who is in charge of nuclear policies.
