Three weeks after the March 11, 2001, earthquake and tsunami
crippled the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, Japanese
fishermen unloaded their catch at the nearby Hirakata fish
market in Kitaibaraki, Ibaraki prefecture. Today, fish and
seafood caught off the coast of the plant show radioactive
cesium continues from either reactor leaks or seabed sediment. /
Toru Yamanaka, AFP/Getty Images Most fish and seafood caught
near Japan's damaged Fukushima nuclear plant still have elevated
levels of radioactive cesium more than 18 months after the March
2011 earthquake and tsunami, indicating continued contamination
from either reactor leaks or seabed sediment, a U.S. researcher
reports. Nonetheless, the "vast majority" of fish caught off the
northeast coast show radiation levels below tightened Japanese
and international limits for seafood consumption, concludes
marine chemist Ken Buesseler, of the Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institution. His analysis of data from the Japanese Ministry of
Agriculture, Forestry and