Japan: 11 years after Fukushima, radioactive pollution remains very high in the area

A view of the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan.

Kazuhiro NOGI AFP/File

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2 mins

More than ten years after the Fukushima nuclear accident, redfish - a sort of sea perch - with an impressive level of radioactive contamination were caught in the waters near the nuclear site.

This discovery coincides with Taiwan's decision to ease restrictions on food imports from the Fukushima region.

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With our correspondent in Tokyo,

Taiwan believed radioactivity levels had returned to normal in the Pacific nearly eleven years after the Fukushima nuclear accident.

Off the power plant, this is the case and the Japanese trawlers have returned to sea. But the seabed and the port near the power plant are still heavily contaminated.

►Also read: Fukushima: 10 years later, a disaster still in progress

Monitoring of radioactivity levels continues.

According to the

, verification of catches revealed cesium contamination on redfish at 1,400 becquerels per kg, while the Japanese government prohibits the sale of fish at more than 100 becquerels per kg.

The sale of these radioactive redfish was immediately prohibited.

In 2013, a fish similar to redfish caught near the plant contained a quantity of radioactive cesium more than 2,500 times greater than the legal limit.

An impact that could last for centuries

For NGOs in Tokyo, such high levels of contamination measured on fish confirm that the effects of

for the natural environment will last for decades, if not centuries.

With the fishermen of Fukushima, they ask the government to

, after treatment, more than a million tons of contaminated water stored on the nuclear site.

The water resulting, among other things, from the cooling of the reactors has been filtered but still contains tritium.

Its discharge into the ocean should begin next year and be spread over thirty years.

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• Japan

• Fukushima

• Nuclear

• Environment