A study on natural and anthropogenic radionuclides in farmed fish and shellfish in Singapore

With a target to increase local seafood production to fulfil Singapore’s goal of producing 30% of its nutritional needs by 2030, the local population is expected to consume more seafood produced domestically as part of their daily diet. It is therefore valuable to acquire radioactivity levels to evaluate the radiation exposure to the public from consumption of these domestic seafood produce. In this study, we evaluated domestically farmed fish and shellfish for natural and anthropogenic radionuclides using gamma spectrometry and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Mean activity concentrations of 228 Ra, 226 Ra, 40 K, 137 Cs, 238 U and 232 Th in farmed fish were determined to be 0.166 Bq/kg, 0.277 Bq/kg, 119.9 Bq/kg, 0.069 Bq/kg, 0.0190 Bq/kg and 0.0026 Bq/kg respectively, while activity levels observed in shellfish were 0.272 Bq/kg for 228 Ra, 0.195 Bq/kg for 226 Ra, 39.2 Bq/kg for 40 K,