Environmental activists stage a rally in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province, southwestern South Korea, on June 8, 2023, to express their objection to Japan’s decision to discharge radioactive water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant into the sea. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, June 13 (Korea Bizwire) — With Japan poised to release contaminated water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant into the ocean, the radioactivity tests for incoming fishery products are not being conducted quickly enough for the results to be available before the products are sold.
The National Fishery Products Quality Management Service is responsible for conducting the radioactivity tests on all fishery products at fish farms and auction houses, and these tests typically take only three hours.
Even when factoring in the necessary preparatory work to create samples of the fishery products prior to testing, the entire process takes no longer than four hours.
However, the challenge lies in the significant amount of time it takes to extract the samples and transport them to the location of the testing equipment.
Out of the agency’s 14 branch offices, only Busan (five devices) and Incheon (four devices) are equipped with the necessary testing equipment.
As a result, the other offices without the testing equipment must send their samples to either Busan or Incheon to have them tested.
Refrigerating the samples, packaging them in an ice box, and arranging for their delivery takes a considerable amount of time.
From the moment the samples are received to when the test results are finalized, almost five days elapse.
To address this issue, the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries plans to introduce testing equipment at the branch offices in Yeosu, Jeju, and Mokpo by the end of this month.
While the tests are being delayed, fishery products continue to be distributed nationwide within just a day.
“It wouldn’t pose a problem for processed products, but live products lose their freshness as time passes. We simply cannot wait for the test results to be available,” said an industry source.
H. M. Kang (hmkang@koreabizwire.com)
