Some fish species in offshore Fukushima, Japan ability to accumulate a specific nuclide (radioisotope)

Abstract

The Tokyo Electric Power Company's, Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Fukushima-Ken (Fukushima Prefecture), Japan, was destroyed in March 2011 by a massive magnitude 9 earthquake (centred offshore to the northeast of Honshu Island) and by the subsequent historic Tsunami of March 11, 2011. Because of the nuclear meltdown, hydrogen-explosion damage to the buildings that housed the reactors, and the contamination of the cooling water from the reactor cores, large quantities of radioisotopes were emitted into the atmosphere and adjacent seawater. The Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology has measured radioisotope levels in fishery species off Iwaki-Shi(Iwaki City), Fukushima-Ken (located south of the former nuclear power plant); these data could be used to understand the relationship between the accumulation of specific nuclides (radioisotopes) and certain species of fish, as follows: [1] It is possible to accumulate or separate specific nuclides (134Cs and 137Cs) by combining Sebastes cheni (Japanese rockfish; SHIROMEBARU) and Kareius bicoloratus (Stone flounder; ISHIGAREI), and Ditrema temmincki temmincki (Surfperch; UMITANAGO) and Cynoglossus joyneri (Red tongue sole; AKASHITA BIRAME). [2] There are differences in 134Cs and 137Cs accumulation between adult fish and fry of Paralichthys olivaceus (Bastard halibut; HIRAME). Therefore, some fish species have the ability to accumulate a specific nuclide (radioisotope). To date, ultra-centrifugation and diffusion methods have been used to accumulate specific nuclides for atomic fuel. However, if we could use the ability of some fish species to accumulate specific nuclides, we would have additional methods to concentrate nuclides.