IRIA News

Japan has initiated the dumping of its radioactive wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean, despite the protests and retaliation from South Korea, China, and other regional stakeholders.

Japan released the first batch of the radioactive water from its tsunami-wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean. The years-long controversial process of discharging 1.3 million tons of radioactive water faced severe backlash from the regional stakeholders, especially China and South Korea. 

Japanese government signed off on the plans of discharging the water two years ago. Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) company has been tasked with managing the discharge of the water. Japan says the water is safe and has been treated.

Japanese administration also has the backing of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and other scientific societies for the dumping of radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean.

Tepco says that the samples taken from the first batch of released water show that the radioactivity levels are well within the same limits. “We confirmed that the analyzed value is equal to the calculated concentration and that the analyzed value is below 1,500 becquerels per liter,” a Tepco spokesperson, Keisuke Matsuo, told reporters. The national safety standard is 60,000 becquerels a liter.

As #Japan starts releasing treated water from #Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant today, IAEA @RafaelMGrossi explains in this video how our monitoring tool provides live data on the release.
📊 https://t.co/7Z4nzqk36R pic.twitter.com/ZSVMB9hDTm

— IAEA – International Atomic Energy Agency ⚛️ (@iaeaorg) August 24, 2023

China’s reaction

China’s Foreign Ministry rejected IAEA’s review report that was released in July 2023 and said that it cannot serve as a “shield” or “green light” for Japan’s discharge of nuclear-contaminated water into the ocean. Following the dumping of radioactive water, China announced that it would block the imports of all seafood products from Japan. China is the largest importer of Japanese seafood products.

South Korean administration also criticized Tokyo’s decision initially, however, following the report from the IAEA, Seoul toned down its retaliation. The South Korean government did not release any statement on the beginning of the dumping process, but several public protests were arranged in South Korea against the discharge of the radioactive water.       

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida commented on the ongoing situation and China’s ban on Japanese seafood imports. He said that his government is using diplomatic channels to request that the ban be lifted. “We strongly encourage discussion among experts based on scientific grounds,” Kishida told reporters.

Japanese officials also highlighted that China has been practicing the same for its Fuqing power plant in Fujian province. A report suggests that China has released at least three times more nuclear wastewater into the Pacific Ocean from its nuclear power plants.

Beijing refuses to draw a parallel between the two cases saying that Japan’s discharge has originated from a nuclear disaster, which makes it more dangerous to the surrounding environment.

“There is a fundamental difference between the nuclear-contaminated water that came into direct contact with the melted reactor cores in the Fukushima nuclear disaster and the water released by nuclear power plants in normal operation,” China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin. “They are different in nature, come from different sources, and require different levels of sophistication to handle.”

Fukushima nuclear plant

Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is a disabled power plant located in Japan’s Fukushima prefecture. The plant suffered major infrastructural damage during the March 2011 tsunami which destroyed the unit’s cooling system and triggered one of the worst nuclear disasters since the Chornobyl incident.

The Fukushima plant is filled up with more than 1.3 million tons of radioactive nuclear wastewater, enough to fill 500 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

In April 2021, Japanese authorities announced that they have used an advanced liquid processing system (ALPS) to extract contaminations from the water and plan to release the water into the Pacific Ocean.

The announcement encountered fierce resistance from Japan’s neighboring countries, especially from China, South Korea, North Korea, Taiwan, and Pacific Island nations, as well as the fishing communities in the Fukushima region which fear for their livelihood and regional environment.