Measures are in place to monitor tritium in Taiwanese waters for when Japan begins dumping wastewater from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant next year or in 2023, the Atomic Energy Council said yesterday.
The government is working closely with Japan on the wastewater issue and would dispatch a team of experts to observe the process, the council said in a statement.
It would start collecting water samples as early as next month to comply with plans proposed by the national sea zone radiation monitoring and safety assessment task force, it said.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The task force strives to be transparent, offer an early warning if radiation levels in Taiwanese waters spike and conduct baseline radiation level tests, it added.
It is one of four task forces established during an April council meeting.
They include a team to communicate with foreign governments, a national sea zone radiation monitoring and safety assessment task force, and a group to handle fishers’ compensation.
Fishers’ complaints would be compared with other data before compensation is approved, it said, adding that it would compare radiation data with those from other nations.
In the first half of the year, the council had analyzed 34 instances of suspected tritium radiation in Taiwanese waters, with results showing normal radiation levels, the council said, adding that it would soon implement an investigation for next fiscal year.
Wastewater storage at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant was expected to be at capacity by autumn next year, but the estimates have been moved back to spring of 2023, the council said.
The Japanese Ministry of the Environment on June 18 met with experts on how to monitor radiation levels before and after the dumping of wastewater into the ocean, and although plans remain vague, they hope to begin monitoring the environment one year before they start the dump, it said.
The Fukushima Dai-ichi plant was crippled after an earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011.
Separately, the council said that radiation levels have been normal nationwide over the past month, following a June 14 CNN report of a leak at the Taishan Nuclear Power Plant in China’s Guangdong Province.
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