Beijing, Aug 16 (ANI): China's ocean watch-dog has warned that the country's seawaters are at the risk of being contaminated by radioactive effluents discharged from Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant that was crippled by the March 11 earthquake.
The State Oceanic Administration's environmental protection department said China will strengthen its monitoring system for radioactive substances in the waters east of Fukushima and in the East China Sea.
They hoped that the move would help gauge the effect of nuclear radiation on the marine environment and marine food, the China Daily reports.
The department's latest monitoring report showed that the first group of seawater samples contained 300 times the amount of radioactive cesium that is found in nature and 100 times the amount of strontium.
However, the report showed that the radiation did not affect the quality of air and water.
China has sent supervision team to detect radioactivity in 252,000 square kilometer water, east of Fukushima on June 16, the results of which will be made public.
According to the State Oceanic Administration, marine organisms in the area are being monitored for contamination.
The organisms that live near the surface are at a greater risk of being affected by radioactive effluents.
Since Cesium-137 and Strontium-90 both have half-lives of about 30 years, they are likely to enter the food chain and affect the health of consumers, the environmental protection department added.
The department said it would continue trying to protect public health by monitoring and gauging the effect of the radiation release on China's marine environment.
Tokyo Electric Power Company, the owner of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, had earlier announced to discharge about 11,500 tons of low-level radioactive water from the plant into the sea after the earthquake and tsunami hit Japan on March 11. (ANI)
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