FDA confirms Japanese seafood imports safe from Fukushima radioactivity
Seafood imported from Japan is free of harmful radioactivity levels, as confirmed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This comes in response to global worries about the potential contamination of marine life following the discharge of wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear power plant that was devastated by a tsunami.
Lertchai Lertvut, the FDA’s deputy secretary-general, detailed yesterday that rigorous safety protocols were put into effect before Japan initiated the release of treated radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean on August 12, over a decade following the nuclear catastrophe.
Lertvut explained that the Office of Atoms for Peace of the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation had collected 75 samples of imported seafood like squid, molluscs and crabs to test for the radioactive elements caesium-134 and caesium-137.
The results highlighted that 42 out of the 75 samples from Fukushima did not contain radioactive traces surpassing international benchmarks. The remaining samples are currently under scrutiny.
Lertvut further stated that any seafood found to be polluted with radioactivity above international standards will be disposed of and its importation will be halted. He reassured that the FDA has implemented necessary measures to ensure that all seafood entering the country is devoid of radioactive contamination.
In related news, a radioactive cylinder of caesium-137 that went missing was smelted at Chow Steel Industries Public Company Limited’s smelting factory in Prachin Buri province.
The implication that smelting this cylinder would have on the environment remains unclear at that moment and officials heavily insisted that the dust was contained and did not spread out of the confines of the plant.
Officials from the Office of Atoms for Peace detected caesium-137 in the furnace at the smelting factory in the Nong Ki subdistrict in the Kabin Buri district. Read more about the story HERE.
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