MOSCOW, September 15 (Itar-Tass) - Russia’s consumer rights protection service (Rospotrebnadzor) will enhance control over fish caught in the Far Eastern seas over the deterioration of the radioactive situation near Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant, Rospotrebnadzor head and Russian’s chief sanitary doctor Gennady Onishchenko told Itar-Tass on Sunday.
According to Onishchenko, there are two key factors that are behind Rospoternadzor’s keen attention to the Far Eastern sea products. First, the season of mass fish catch begins in the region, and. Second, experts report increased discharges of long-living heavy radionuclides into the sea waters in the vicinity of the Fukushima plant.
According to Rospotrebnadzor data, “the volume of discharges of hazardous substances into the water has increased by 1.5 times in the past 45 days alone,” Onishchenko said. “It is a solid ground to step up control over fish catch. We have instructed our local services to enhance this work but show differentiated approach focusing on the fish species that spawn near Japan’s coastline.”
In mid-August 2013, there was the biggest leak of radioactive water from the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant since the March 2011 accident that was provoked by a magnitude 9 earthquake in Japan’s northeastern provinces.