New research indicates that radioactive cesium levels in many kinds of fish caught off the coast of Fukushima have not declined in the year following Japan's nuclear disaster.
Ken Buesseler, a marine chemist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in the eastern U.S. state of Massachusetts released the data in an article published Thursday in the Journal of Science.
Buesseler, using data from Japan's ministry of agriculture, found that 40 percent of bottom-dwelling fish such as cod, flounder and halibut, are above limits of cesium-134 allowed for consumption.
Although the vast majority of the catch off Japan's northeast coast is well within safety limits, the report indicates that the sea floor or leakage from the damaged nuclear reactors is continuing to contaminate waters.
A huge tsunami, triggered by a massive 9.0-magnitude undersea earthquake, swamped the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in March of 2011, causing the meltdown of three nuclear reactors and widespread radioactive contamination.
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