The ongoing discharge of treated radioactive wastewater at the ruined Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant has met safety standards and any restrictions on products from the region are “not scientific,” International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Rafael Grossi told local Japanese representatives at a meeting in Fukushima yesterday.
Grossi joined local officials and representatives from fishing and business groups, and reassured them that the discharges are being carried out “with no impact to the environment, water, fish and sediment.”
Grossi, who arrived in Japan on Tuesday, returned to Fukushima for the first time since the release of the treated water began in August last year.
Photo: AP
He examined the discharge and sampling facility later yesterday.
He previously visited the plant in July last year after issuing an IAEA review predicting only negligible impact from the discharges.
An IAEA report later said that the discharges meet international safety standards.
The 2011 disaster damaged the Fukushima plant’s power supply and reactor cooling functions, triggering triple meltdowns and causing large amounts of radioactive wastewater to accumulate. After more than a decade of cleanup work, the plant on Aug. 24 last year began discharging the water after treating it and diluting it with large amounts of seawater, starting a process that is expected to take decades.
The discharges have been opposed by fishing groups and neighboring countries, including China, which banned all imports of Japanese seafood immediately after the release began.
“There is no scientific reason to impose any restriction on products coming from us,” Grossi said at the meeting in Iwaki. “This is very important in particular to be said in this forum here in Fukushima.”
There was a “political dimension to this activity, since ... some neighboring countries are also manifesting concerns,” he added.
Despite earlier fears that the water discharge would further hurt Fukushima’s hard-hit fishing industry, it has not damaged its reputation domestically.
China’s ban on Japanese seafood mostly hit scallop exporters in Hokkaido.
Tokyo has earmarked more than ￥100 billion (US$680 million) that includes compensation and other support, including measures to help find other export destinations.
The discharges are at the beginning of a long process, Grossi said, stressing the importance of “transparency, technical accuracy and wide open, honest dialogue and consultation.”
The IAEA has its own office and lab at the Fukushima plant to independently monitor the process, he added.
Grossi said he met with residents not only to highlight the main points about the discharges, but “to learn from you.”
He said he would keep coming back to Fukushima and that he is open to hearing residents’ concerns and needs.
PHISHING: The con might appear convincing, as the scam e-mails can coincide with genuine messages from Apple saying you have run out of storage For a while you have been getting messages from Apple saying “your iCloud storage is full.” They say you have exceeded your storage plan, so documents are no longer being backed up, and photos you take are not being uploaded. You have been resisting Apple’s efforts to get you to pay a minimum of ￡0.99 (US$1.33) a month for more storage, but it seems that you cannot keep putting off the inevitable: You have received an e-mail which says your iCloud account has been blocked, and your photos and videos would be deleted very soon. To keep them you need
For two decades, researchers observed members of the Ngogo chimpanzee group of Kibale National Park in Uganda spend their days eating fruits and leaves, resting, traveling and grooming in their tropical rainforest abode, but this stable community then fractured and descended into years of deadly violence. The researchers are now describing the first clearly documented example of a group of wild chimpanzees splitting into two separate factions, with one launching a series of coordinated attacks against the other. Adult males and infants were targeted, with 28 deaths. “Biting, pounding the victim with their hands, dragging them, kicking them — mostly adult males,
The Israeli military has demolished entire villages as part of its invasion of south Lebanon, rigging homes with explosives and razing them to the ground in massive remote detonations. The Guardian reviewed three videos posted by the Israeli military and on social media, which showed Israel carrying out mass detonations in the villages of Taybeh, Naqoura and Deir Seryan along the Israel-Lebanon border. Lebanese media has reported more mass detonations in other border villages, but satellite imagery was not readily available to verify these claims. The demolitions came after Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz called for the destruction of
SUPERFAN: The Japanese PM played keyboard in a Deep Purple tribute band in middle school and then switched to drums at university, she told the British rock band Legendary British rock band Deep Purple yesterday made Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s day with a brief visit to their high-profile superfan as they returned to the nation they first toured more than half a century ago. Takaichi’s reputation as an amateur drummer, and a fan of hard rock and heavy metal has been well documented, and she has referred to Deep Purple as one of her favorite bands along with the likes of Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden. “You are my god,” a giddy Takaichi said in English to Deep Purple drummer Ian Paice, presenting him with a set of made-in-Japan
RSS