Japan’s plan to release treated wastewater from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant disaster site is in line with global safety standards, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said after completing a two-year review.
The agency found the proposals for “controlled, gradual discharges of the treated water” into the Pacific Ocean “would have a negligible radiological impact on people and the environment,” IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi said in a foreword to a report handed yesterday to Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
IAEA officials would continue to review the release of the wastewater and conduct live monitoring.
Photo: Reuters
The conclusion of the agency’s study enables Japan “to take the decisions that you may wish to take to continue and move on to the next phase,” Grossi said as he met with Kishida.
An assessment of the discharge facility by a domestic nuclear regulator is still required before a timeline is finalized to begin releasing the water — equivalent in volume to about 500 Olympic-size swimming pools.
Japanese government officials have said that the discharges, which could take decades, would begin during the summer.
“I will not allow a release that would harm people or the environment in Japan or around the world,” Kishida told reporters. “I will continue to explain carefully at home and abroad, on a scientific basis and with a high degree of transparency.”
The proposal has been harshly criticized by China’s government, sparked public protests in South Korea, and faces opposition from some local residents and members of Japan’s fishing industry. Cosmetics brands to seafood exporters are among those to have been targeted with potential boycotts.
China again urged Japan to stop the plan to discharge the contaminated water, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement yesterday.
China also expressed regret at the IAEA report endorsing the plan.
Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco), which operates the nuclear power plant, cycles in water to keep fuel and debris cool at the disaster site.
That contaminated water is processed to remove most radioactive elements, except tritium, which is more difficult to eliminate at low concentrations.
The liquid is stored in about 1,000 tanks and Tepco plans to further dilute the waste with seawater before releasing it off the coast through a tunnel.
The Japanese government and Tepco have said that removing the wastewater and storage tanks is necessary to allow full decommissioning of the nuclear plant, which suffered a meltdown in 2011.
“This process of dilution, and chemical and other filtering, is nothing new, it’s something that exists in the industry,” Grossi said in a separate briefing in Tokyo.
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