Fukushima fish traders fear effects of water release

Awa-jinja is a place of pilgrimage for the more superstitious fishing crews of Shinchi-machi, a coastal town in Fukushima, who come here to lower their heads and ask the Shinto gods to look kindly on them as they prepare to steer their boats into the Pacific Ocean.

- Justin McCurry

Today, though, the "safe waves" implicit in the shrine's name are of little concern to the men and women coming to the end of the working day at the fishing port. "That has only just started, and prices were already down at auction this morning," said Haruko, a fish trader.

"That," she indicated with the wave of a hand in the direction of the sea, is the start of the most controversial stage in the long and fraught task of decommissioning the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant since it was struck by a powerful earthquake and tsunami in March 2011, causing three of its reactors to go into meltdown.

In images broadcast live online last Thursday, engineers behind computer screens opened valves to allow the first batch of 1.3m tonnes of wastewater from the plant to flow into the sea.