Research in Irish Sea Suggests Japanese Seafood Is Safe

Radiation from fish and lobstersnear the U.K.'s biggest nuclear polluter suggest radioactivematerial dumped into the sea from Japan's Fukushima power plantisn't a long-term health threat, scientists said.

The Sellafield nuclear-processing plant in northwest England has discharged at least 320,000 times more radioactivematerial into the Irish Sea since 1952 than what Tokyo ElectricPower Co. released from Fukushima this month, according toBloomberg calculations based on data from both sites. Still,average radiation doses by seafood-consumers near Sellafieldover 15 years have been half the recommended limit, studies show.

The Sellafield research suggests bans on Japanese seafoodare unnecessary, said Richard Wakeford, a professor ofepidemiology at the University of Manchester's Dalton Nuclear Institute. The U.S. and European Union are among nations thathave curbed imports from Japan, and hotels including Shangri-La Asia Ltd. (69)'s luxury chain have stopped serving seafood from theEast Asian country because of radiation fears.

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