Officials from Japan and South Korea yesterday discussed a visit by South Korean experts to the tsunami-crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant before it begins the controversial release of treated, but radioactive, water into the sea.
The safety of the water is a major sticking point as the two sides work to improve long-strained ties.
Discussions were held in Seoul and online, and the Japanese government was expected to give updates on the status of the Fukushima plant.
Photo: AP
Officials are preparing to release the water, saying it is an unavoidable step in the decommissioning process.
The government and the plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), said the release would begin in the spring or summer and take decades to finish.
A tsunami triggered by a massive earthquake in 2011 destroyed the nuclear plant’s cooling systems, causing three reactors to melt and release large amounts of radiation.
Water used to cool the three damaged reactor cores, which remain highly radioactive, leaks into the basements of the reactor buildings and is collected, treated and stored in about 1,000 tanks that cover much of the plant.
The government and TEPCO said the tanks must be removed to make room to build facilities for the plant’s decommissioning and to minimize the risk of leaks in case of another major disaster.
The tanks are expected to reach their capacity of 1.37 million tonnes in the spring next year.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, during a visit to Seoul for a summit with South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol early this week, announced that Japan would receive a team of experts at the plant later this month to address South Korea’s concerns in a show of his desire to further improve relations.
Seoul wants to send about 20 South Korean government experts to the nuclear power plant.
It said that the group’s size would be determined after talks with Japan.
South Korean Government Policy Coordination Office vice head Park Ku-yeon said Japan was reluctant to accept private experts, as it sees it as a government-to-government matter.
He said the plant visit is aimed at “reviewing the safety of the entire ocean discharge process,” including the site’s water treatment facility and its operation, and technologies to measure contamination levels in treated water.
Asked whether Seoul would consider lifting its import ban on seafood from Fukushima Prefecture if it determines Japan’s water release plan is safe, Park said “absolutely not,” citing South Korean public concerns and a need for deeper investigations into the environmental impact of the 2011 disaster.
Japanese officials said the South Korean delegation’s plant visit is not an inspection and does not involve a safety assessment, review or evaluation of the water discharge plan.
Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno on Thursday said the visit would not affect the timing of a planned release of the water and that Japan continues to provide explanations about safety measures to aid understanding.
Japanese officials say the water would be safely filtered to below releasable levels by international standards and further diluted by large amounts of seawater before release, making it harmless to human health or marine life.
The plan has faced fierce protests from local fishing communities concerned about safety and reputational damage. Neighboring countries, including Taiwan, South Korea, China and Pacific Island nations, have also raised safety concerns.
South Korea and China ban food imports from Fukushima and describe the water as “contaminated” instead of “treated,” despite Tokyo’s repeated protests.
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
SHIFT: Taiwan’s better-than-expected first-quarter GDP and signs of weakness in the US have driven global capital back to emerging markets, the central bank head said The central bank yesterday blamed market speculation for the steep rise in the local currency, and urged exporters and financial institutions to stay calm and stop panic sell-offs to avoid hurting their own profitability. The nation’s top monetary policymaker said that it would step in, if necessary, to maintain order and stability in the foreign exchange market. The remarks came as the NT dollar yesterday closed up NT$0.919 to NT$30.145 against the US dollar in Taipei trading, after rising as high as NT$29.59 in intraday trading. The local currency has surged 5.85 percent against the greenback over the past two sessions, central
RSS