According to a media report, Japan’s controversial discharge of cooling water from the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant into the sea will begin in August. The outrage is not only great in Japan.
The government will now discuss the plan with local communities and neighboring countries, Japanese business newspaper Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported on Wednesday. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, on Tuesday gave Japan the green light for the planned release of huge amounts of filtered cooling water into the sea. Japan’s plan meets international safety standards, the final assessment report said.
Fishing cooperatives in the three neighboring prefectures of Fukushima, Miyagi and Iwate announced they would this week send a petition to the central government and the operator of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, calling on fishermen to oppose the planned dumping of cooling water. “I am very concerned because I do not know how the release of the treated water will affect my work and livelihood,” Japan’s Kyodo news agency quoted one of the concerned fishermen in Fukushima as saying. He and his colleagues fear reputational damage and loss of turnover.
Japan’s plans are also met with concern and rejection in neighboring countries such as China. The South Korean government has so far emphasized that it intends to maintain the ban on imports of fishery products from Fukushima and the surrounding area as long as concerns about the planned cooling water runoff are not resolved.
Cooling water tanks are full
In 2011, an earthquake and tsunami caused a core meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. The destroyed reactors still need to be cooled with water, which is stored in huge tanks. But according to operator group Tepco, there is no room for that at the moment. The water must therefore be filtered through a tunnel built about a kilometer into the sea and discharged diluted. However, the technical ALPS system cannot filter out the tritium isotope. According to Tepco and the IAEA, there is no danger yet, as tritium is harmless in small quantities.
Source: Krone
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