International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) experts will visit Japan next week to collect samples of seawater, marine sediment and fishery products from coastal waters in Fukushima Prefecture.

The goal is to support the quality assurance of radioactivity data collection and analysis by Japanese laboratories involved in a project initiated in 2014.

The 9 - 12 November mission is the eleventh IAEA visit since 2014 to collect marine samples from around TEPCO's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (NPS) for inter-laboratory comparisons of radioactivity analyses.

The visit is an ongoing follow-up activity to recommendations made on marine monitoring in a 2013 report by the IAEA International Peer Review Mission on Mid- and Long-Term Roadmap towards the Decommissioning of TEPCO's Fukushima Daiichi NPS Units 1-4, which reviewed Japan's efforts to plan and implement the decommissioning of the plant.

The mission team comprises two staff from the IAEA Environment Laboratories in Monaco as well as three experts from the network of Analytical Laboratories for the Measurement of Environmental Radioactivity. In addition to collecting seawater and marine sediment near the Fukushima Daiichi NPS, the team will also observe sampling of fish from fish markets in Fukushima Prefecture.

The project has so far completed two phases. The first phase reviewed the six inter-laboratory comparisons and sampling missions conducted from 2014 to 2016. The July 2017 report concluded that Japanese laboratories analysing seawater, marine sediment and fish samples from near the Fukushima Daiichi NPS produce reliable data. The second phase reviewed the four inter-laboratory comparisons and sampling missions conducted from 2017 to 2021. The preliminary report found that the Japanese laboratories were producing reliable data, demonstrating a continued high level of accuracy and competence.

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