Japanese government officials yesterday told diplomats they were still considering options for handling contaminated water at Tokyo Electric Power’s (TEPCO) wrecked Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant amid worries the water might be dumped into the ocean.
A massive body of tainted water — more than 900,000 tonnes as of last month — is building up at the plant, crippled by a 2011 earthquake and tsunami, as TEPCO tries to cool the melted fuel cores by pouring water over them.
The firm has said it would run out of tank space by mid-2022.
The briefing for embassy officials in Tokyo follows a meeting last month of a government panel of experts looking into ways to solve the water problem. The final government decision is to be made based on a report by the panel.
Asked by one of the participating embassy officials about the timing of the panel decision, Japanese officials said that such timing has not been fixed, according to a media briefing held later in the day.
The briefing for diplomats was attended by 27 embassy officials from 22 nations and regions, including South Korea and the US. No protests or demands have been made by the participating diplomats, according to the media briefing.
“With transparency in mind, Japan will continue providing the international community with information [on the Fukushima Dai-ichi situation],” Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs International Nuclear Energy Cooperation Division Director Koichiro Matsumoto told diplomats at the start of the meeting, the outset of which was open to reporters.
The meeting comes after South Korea, locked in trade and territorial rows with Japan, last month summoned a senior official from the Japanese embassy in Seoul to ask about Japan’s stance on dealing with the Fukushima Dai-ichi water.
However, a ministry official told reporters that briefings for diplomats on the matter have been held more than 100 times since the March 2011 disaster, and the one yesterday was held to pass information discussed at the government panel meeting last month.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
China would train thousands of foreign law enforcement officers to see the world order “develop in a more fair, reasonable and efficient direction,” its minister for public security has said. “We will [also] send police consultants to countries in need to conduct training to help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities,” Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong (王小洪) told an annual global security forum. Wang made the announcement in the eastern city of Lianyungang on Monday in front of law enforcement representatives from 122 countries, regions and international organizations such as Interpol. The forum is part of ongoing