Russia maintains ban on fish from Japan, checking its safety in area of Fukushima water discharge - Rosselkhoznadzor

ST. PETERSBURG. Sept 18 (Interfax) - Russia is maintaining its ban on the supply of fish from Japan, checking its safety in the zone of the spread of technical water dumped from the Fukushima 1 Nuclear Power Plant, Sergei Dankvert, the head of the Russian Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Supervision (Rosselkhoznadzor), said in St. Petersburg on Wednesday.

"As to Fukushima. We are monitoring mainly fish [safety]. The Japanese are testing the water, they say everything is OK. We are testing fish, it's currently safe, but we are still not taking [fish] from Japan," he said.

Rosselkhoznadzor is following the principle of achieving safety and observing precautions, he said. "We are doing so as a precaution," he said.

An earthquake, which caused a tsunami, occurred off the northeastern coast of Japan in March 2011. A huge wave hit the Fukushima 1 NPP, which led to the largest accident since the Chernobyl NPP disaster in 1986.

In August 2023, Japan started discharging the water that had been used to cool the reactors of the affected NPP.

The Russian Federal Agency for Fishery (Rosrybolovstvo) earlier said Russian vessels were not fishing in that area.