Experiments have begun for the first time to observe the effects of radioactive water on fish, the National Atomic Research Institute said yesterday.
The experiment is part of a plan initiated by the government in response to the ongoing discharge of nuclear wastewater by Japan from the wrecked Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean since Aug. 24 last year.
The wastewater, although treated and diluted, still contains unremovable radioactive tritium, which has alarmed nearby countries.
Photo: Screen grab from the National Atomic Research Institute’s Web site
The Department of Chemical Engineering on Wednesday put tritium nuclides into a pond containing 150 yellowfin seabreams, creating a tritium concentration of 1,500 becquerels per liter, the institute said in a statement.
The one-year experiment is expected to clarify the bioaccumulation of tissue-free water tritium — tritium in water that is not bound to tissue molecules — and organically bound tritium, it said.
The results would be compared with those from flatfish placed in seawater from Japan, it added.
The results would help improve testing and monitoring systems to distinguish more rapidly whether seawater or marine life has been contaminated with tritium, it said.
Separately, the Nuclear Safety Commission has updated its Report on the Scheme to Handle the Tritium-tainted Wastewater from Japan (我國因應日本含氚廢水排放配套措施進度說明).
The Fukushima plant on Tuesday completed the sixth round of releases of wastewater, with the cumulative discharge totaling 7,800m3 with total tritium activity of about 1.4 trillion becquerels, the report said.
The water released has generally flowed eastward with ocean currents, it said.
The forecast maximum tritium concentrations were all below detectable amounts, so the sea around Taiwan has not been affected, it said.
Radiation monitoring of seas around Taiwan has been conducted via inter-ministerial cooperation since 2017, the commission said.
As of Sunday, 9,250 samples had been analyzed, including seawater, sea organisms and littoral sand, without any radioactive abnormalities detected, it added.
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