Record high radiation level found in fish caught near Fukushima plant

I wonder how much contaminated fish makes it to the market, by hook or crook.

So, does this mean that Dai-ichi is still leaking radiation into the ocean? Or does it mean that this fish was contaminated nearly two years ago and still living in the area?

No surprise here!! The stupid Japanese government wants to "support Tohoku" by buying Tohoku rice, fish etc,, So we can later get sick and die?? Bastards!!

the ingestion dose factor is 1.3E-08 Sv/Bq for Cs-137. That means eating one kilogram of this "stone fish" (is there even a market for consumption of this type of fish?) with 254000 Bq will result in a committed 50-year dose of 3.3 mSv. That's about one year's worth of natural radiation, 16% of the dose of an x-ray CT scan, or a bit more than 600 hours of fligh.

"was caught at a port inside the Fukushima plant" There is no doubt fish INSIDE THE FUKUSHIMA PLANT will be contaminated.

The stupid Japanese government wants to "support Tohoku" by buying Tohoku rice, fish etc,,

It is comments like these that equate Tohoku with the area immediately near the failed reactors which harm the region as a whole. There are many prefectures/areas up there and in other parts of Japan with less radiation than Tokyo.

Daijaboots - One of my surfer friends took radiation readings of the sand at Kashima in Ibaraki prefecture and found very high radiation levels. It is difficult to believe anything TEPCO or the -Gov day about the radiation levels in the surrounding areas.

One of my surfer friends took radiation readings of the sand at Kashima in Ibaraki prefecture and found very high radiation levels

What was your friend's reading? Did TEPCO or the "J-Gov" claim another level for Kashima? Were the readings taken on the same day or thereabouts? Most of all what is your point? TEPCO and the "J-Gov" conspire to manipulate the data? If you really believe so there are plenty of other sources of data out there.

Daijaboots - One of my surfer friends took radiation readings of the sand at Kashima in Ibaraki prefecture and found very high radiation levels.

Define very high.

I don't know how to feel about this kind of news anymore cause Japan voted for those who allow to build Fukushima. So Japan will eat what they cooked them self. Or shall I scream. 'Yeah we have winner'.

Did it have three heads?

Let's see PM Abe go up there and and chow down on some fish ... to show us how safe it is. When he does this, is he eating the same foods that are shipped out for we'uns on the lower part of the human scale to eat? If I remember correctly, didn't he recently eat some strawberries from Fukushima to show how safe they are?

No matter what ... the food supply from that area better be safe 'cause a lot of kids who are eating it might have a rough future medically if things are not as they are said to be.

DisillusionedJan. 19, 2013 - 07:31AM JST

Or does it mean that this fish was contaminated nearly two years ago and still living in the area?

Apparently this is a Whitespeckled rockfish, of which some live to be over a hundred years old. Rockfish tend not to migrate, so if this is an adult fish, it's been there for a while. On top of that, the article states it was caught inside the plant, so very likely it's been there for a long time inside the most concentrated area of cs-137. Considering the type and location of the fish, it's very likely this is in the maximum range for sea life, since all other areas would have far lower levels simply by distance.

Two good things are known here though, first being that this fish type is very endangered due to overfishing and having people avoid it will allow it's population to recover. Though bad press isn't the best way, recovery of the population is important. The second is that it's the top of it's food chain, so there's no worry about it getting eaten (other than by people).

This is so sad. That 3eyed Simpsons fish is coming soon... And Mothra!!!!!!

jerobeamJan. 19, 2013 - 07:49AM JST

the ingestion dose factor is 1.3E-08 Sv/Bq for Cs-137. That means eating one kilogram of this "stone fish" (is there even a market for consumption of this type of fish?) with 254000 Bq will result in a committed 50-year dose of 3.3 mSv.

That assumes you ate it continually (roughly so) for the 50 years, and I don't know about you, but I won't eat fish that's been out for more than a few hours, let alone years. If you and your adult family ate 1kg of the fish at one sitting, the long term (longer biological half-life ) dose is actually based on a maximum of 220kBq the first year, 13kBq the second, and 800Bq the third. Actual doses would be much smaller though, since Cs137 absorption depends on your potassium saturation.

http://www.hss.energy.gov/healthsafety/env_docs/200110.pdf

Forgot to add that part, shows the formulas used for jerobeam's calculations and pertinent examples (which had similar radiation levels to this fish)

That assumes you ate it continually (roughly so) for the 50 years, and I don't know about you, but I won't eat fish that's been out for more than a few hours, let alone years. If you and your adult family ate 1kg of the fish at one sitting, the long term (longer biological half-life ) dose is actually based on a maximum of 220kBq the first year, 13kBq the second, and 800Bq the third. Actual doses would be much smaller though, since Cs137 absorption depends on your potassium saturation.

No, this is the dose coefficient for a single intake and the 50-year committed dose resulting from this single intake. The committed dose depends on the biokinetics of the radionuclide (reflected in the dose coefficient) and the amount ingested (in the case of ingestion). With inhalation it gets a little more complicated. I don't think you'll have any saturation problems as 254000 Bq of Cs-137 represent only about 0.08 micrograms of material. Of course if you ingest huge amounts of Potassium and Salt (Sodium) there may be less uptake, but the biokinetics of cesium are well-studied and known. If you want to calculate it by yourself, use http://www.epa.gov/rpdweb00/assessment/dcal.html

The fish, similar to rockfish, was caught at a port inside the Fukushima plant, a TEPCO spokesman said.

What would expect from inside the plant?

Levels of contamination seem to be rising and spreading instead of decreasing. Why is this? Having followed the incident from the start it is obvious that the facts are just not out there nor is there open debate,sufficient measuring of contamination, adequate containment etc.

Why is there no concerted effort to remedy this?

A fish caught inside the nuclear plant has high levels of radiation - why on earth is this a surprise. It's not a migratory fish, it stays in the same area so it's been in an area of high concentration.

Of course one way of looking at this is a fish, a substantially smaller animal than a human being, has been exposed to massive levels of radiation over a 21 month period and didn't die. But that kind of post would draw record negative ratings from the experts on here.

No Kidding!

Tepco and the Japanese Government have contaminated the Pacific Ocean and it's getting worse every second because the massive amounts of radiation being released are still uncontrolled and spewing into the sea over there in Japan only to be pushed EVERYWHERE by the ocean currents! If you have been eating fish or other sea life from the Pacific Ocean you REALLY should think about detoxing the radiation from your body that you have ingested. The best way to rid your body of radiation is with natural powdered Zeolite which is a mineral that has been PROVEN to do the very best job of removing radiation and heavy metals from the human body!

Two Asian countries were found to have practiced exchanging or transferring catch between boats over the open sea.