January 27, 2017 3rd Dialogue meeting was held in Minami-Soma City

IER held the 3rd dialogue meeting at the City Hall of Minami-Soma City. Under the theme of “新田川・真野川水系の現状 (The current situation of the Niida River and the Mano River water system)”, several researchers from Fukushima Prefectural Fisheries Experimental Station and National Institute for Environmental Studies as well as IER made presentations on the studies conducted at the Niida River, the Mano River and the basin of both rivers.

In the meeting, researchers explained about their research results, saying “As for the concentration of cesium in the rivers, the secular variation of the concentration of cesium 137 in the river water was lower than the predicted value, and the decrease was remarkable in the upstream area where decontamination was advanced. Therefore, it is considered that the decrease in the concentration was accelerated by decontamination.” The researchers also reported that the concentration of radioactive cesium in fishes living in both the Niida and Mano Rivers was significantly lower than immediately after the accident, but some fish were still found with exceeding standard level of cesium, and that monitoring should be continued toward future.

After the report, there were lively discussions on the presentations with questions and comments from the participants.