No violations found in fish products after Fukushima 1 water discharge - Russian watchdog

VLADIVOSTOK. Sept 26 (Interfax) - No violations have been discovered in fish products caught near the site of the discharge of slightly radioactive water from Japan's Fukushima 1 Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), the press service for the Primorye interregional department of Russian plant and animal health watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor said on Tuesday.

"Rosselkhoznadzor's Primorye interregional veterinary laboratory from September 18-22 conducted 494 examinations of 164 samples of different fish products weighing a total of 31,700 tonnes caught in fishing subareas of Russia's regions," it said.

Among the regions where the fish, seafood and caviar originate, research clients focused on the fishing subzones of the Primorye Territory in 58 cases, Kamchatka in 38 cases, Sakhalin in 29 cases, the Khabarovsk Territory in 21 cases, and the Murmansk region in one case.

No cases of excess radiation in products have been detected. Specifically, 140 samples of fish products, such as halibut, humpback salmon, pollock, chum salmon, crab, and so on were studied in the Primorye Territory.

Specialists from the Sakhalin branch examined 24 samples of fish products, including dried sea cucumber, chum salmon, shrimp, salt-cured caviar, frozen roe, and so on.

Fish products are being examined according to basic radiological safety indicators. This concerns the specific activity of iodine-131, strontium-90, cesium-134, and cesium-137. Their standards are determined by the requirements of Russian technical regulations and the requirements in regulatory documentation from countries importing fish products.

On August 24, Japan began releasing water used for reactor cooling at the Fukushima-1 NPP, damaged by a tsunami in 2011, into the Pacific Ocean.