Press Releases
Publication of the IAEA Report regarding Marine Monitoring
September 17, 2026
On September 15, 2026, the IAEA published a report of its results for the interlaboratory comparison (ILC) on the determination of radionuclides in the marine environment.
- After the accident of Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (TEPCO)’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (FDNPS), the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has been conducting its Marine Monitoring since 2014 to ensure the credibility and transparency of the data of Japan’s Sea Area Monitoring. The IAEA compared analysis results of the IAEA, Japanese laboratories and third-country laboratories from China, the Republic of Korea, and Switzerland on seawater, sediment and fish samples collected in the joint sampling campaign by the IAEA and Japan in 2024 and they released its result.
- This ILC has been conducted as part of a project following the recommendations on marine monitoring contained in the IAEA’s 2013 report related to the decommissioning of TEPCO’s FDNPS.
- In the published report, the IAEA concluded that Japan's sample collection procedures continue to follow the appropriate standards required to obtain representative samples and that the accurate results obtained in ILC 2024 and in the previous IAEA ILCs demonstrate a high degree of proficiency and confidence on the part of the Japanese laboratories.
- IAEA Marine Monitoring will continue to be conducted in the future.
(Reference) Interlaboratory Comparison (ILC)
In the ILC, the IAEA, third country analytical laboratories selected by the IAEA, and Japanese laboratories analyze the same samples collected individually, and the IAEA compares their analysis results to confirm that the laboratories’ analytical methods and analysis results for radionuclides are appropriate.
