Japan began releasing the second batch of treated wastewater from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant yesterday, an incremental step in a decades-long process that has drawn strong condemnation from China.
The discharge, a small portion of the 1.34 million tonnes of wastewater built up since a tsunami struck the facility in 2011, began at 10:18am, a spokesman for operator Tokyo Electric Power Co Holdings (TEPCO) told AFP.
While Japan has insisted the treated water poses no health risks — a view backed by the UN’s nuclear watchdog — Beijing has repeatedly criticized the release and banned all Japanese seafood imports in response.
Photo: AP
TEPCO has said the wastewater has been filtered of all radioactive elements except tritium, which is within internationally recognized safe levels.
“It has been confirmed that the first release has been conducted as planned and in a safe manner,” Japanese government spokesman Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters yesterday, adding that no abnormalities had been detected.
The government would “continue to communicate, both domestically and internationally, results of monitoring data in a highly transparent manner,” Matsuno said.
Japan is also urging China to “immediately scrap import bans on Japanese food, and act based on scientific justifications,” he added.
Russia, which has frosty relations of its own with Japan, is reportedly considering following suit on the seafood ban.
Food exports from Japan to China plunged 41.2 percent in August to ￥14 billion (US$94 million), Japanese Ministry of Finance data showed.
China has accused Japan of using the ocean like a “sewer,” an assertion echoed at the UN last week by Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare, whose improving ties with Beijing have drawn alarm from traditional Western allies such as Australia.
Following August’s initial release, numerous Japanese businesses reported having trouble conducting daily operations after being flooded with angry calls from Chinese numbers.
Tokyo, meanwhile, demanded that China ensure the safety of Japanese citizens after a brick was thrown at its embassy in Beijing.
The release of wastewater is aimed at making space to eventually begin removing highly dangerous radioactive fuel and rubble from the plant’s wrecked reactors.
TEPCO would be rigorous in overseeing the second round, an official told reporters at a briefing on Wednesday, while exercising “the utmost vigilance to ensure that there is no unintentional discharge” of treated water into the sea.
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