The discharge into the Pacific Ocean of water from the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant must begin on Thursday, the Japanese Prime Minister said on Tuesday, triggering the anger of China which summoned the Japanese ambassador.
This process was validated in early July by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Tokyo ensures that it will be safe for the environment and human health.
But the operation, which should last for decades, arouses serious concerns and criticism, especially from China.
“Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong has summoned Japan’s Ambassador to China, Hideo Tarumi, to deliver a solemn declaration after Tokyo announced it will start discharging water from the affected Fukushima power plant. in the Pacific Ocean this week,” according to a Foreign Office statement.
“The ocean is the property of all humanity, it is not a place where Japan can arbitrarily discharge contaminated water,” Chinese diplomacy spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters on Tuesday. .
Beijing last month banned food imports from ten Japanese departments, including Fukushima, and is carrying out radiation tests on foodstuffs from the rest of the country.
Hong Kong also decided on Tuesday to “immediately” ban imports of seafood products from ten Japanese departments.
Tokyo plans to discharge more than 1.3 million m3 of water from the Fukushima Daiichi power plant into the sea from rainwater, groundwater and the injections needed to cool the cores of reactors that went into meltdown after the tsunami in March 2011 that devastated the northeast coast of the country.
This water was treated beforehand to get rid of its radioactive substances, with the exception, however, of tritium, which could not be removed with existing technologies.
Only highly concentrated doses of tritium are harmful to health, experts say.
Also Tepco, the operator of the Fukushima power plant, plans a discharge into the ocean spread out until the beginning of the 2050s, at a rate of 500,000 liters per day maximum, and with a dilution to reduce the level of radioactivity by tritiated water well below national standards for this category.
Japan therefore asserts that this operation poses no threat to the marine environment and human health. The IAEA, which controls the project, agrees and gave the green light in July.
The operation will begin Thursday “weather permitting”, according to Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
IAEA staff are working on site to ensure that the project “remains compliant with safety standards” and will make “real-time and near real-time” monitoring data available to the international community, it said on Tuesday. agency in a press release.
Tepco and the Japanese Fisheries Agency will also put monitoring data online.
“The Japanese government has opted for a false solution – decades of deliberate radioactive pollution in the marine environment – at a time when the world’s oceans are already under strain,” Greenpeace said in a statement on Tuesday.
The Japanese fishing industry fears harmful consequences for the image of its products, among Japanese consumers and abroad.
“We are always opposed to the discharge of water” because “scientific security does not necessarily equate to a feeling of security in society”, its representative, Masanobu Sakamoto, declared Monday after a meeting with Mr Kishida.
Japan will demand an end to Chinese trade restrictions by putting forward “scientific evidence”, assured Mr. Kishida on Tuesday.
He promised measures to support the Japanese fishing industry by encouraging its production and domestic consumption of its products, as well as opening new export markets. A fund of 30 billion yen (190 million euros) is also planned to deal with the risk of loss of image.
China’s fears may be sincere, but its vehement tone is likely also due to geopolitical and economic tensions between Beijing and Tokyo, according to James Brady, an analyst at research firm Teneo.
Beijing can thus “exploit” the Fukushima water problem by trying to “exacerbate” internal divisions in Japan on the subject, exert “certain pressure” on Japanese foreign trade and try to disrupt the recent warming of ties between Tokyo and Seoul, said Mr. Brady, interviewed by AFP.
Through the voice of its foreign minister’s spokesman, Taiwan, another major Asian customer of Japanese seafood, adopted measured language on Tuesday, saying it “respects” the assessments of international scientific experts on the subject.
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22/08/2023 16:53:39 – Tokyo (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
