International Atomic Energy Agency says release of water 12 years after meltdown at nuclear plant is safe, but fears of Pacific Ocean contamination remain
For 12 years since an earthquake and tsunami caused a triple meltdown at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, contaminated water has been stored in huge 30-metre high tanks. Today, there are over a thousand, and the disaster site is the size of a small town.
From the Japanese perspective, however, this is exactly what they’re doing. The International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations nuclear regulatory body, has signed off on the plan, saying it meets international standards and will have “negligible” effects on the environment. The United States has also supported the discharge, as have to a lesser degree Japan’s neighbours South Korea and Taiwan.
Greenpeace has strongly criticized the plan, however, saying it underestimates the potential risk to health, “disregards scientific evidence, violates the human rights of communities in Japan and the Pacific region, and is non-compliant with international maritime law.” Many nuclear plants around the world routinely discharge water contaminated with higher levels of tritium, including in China, something Tokyo has been. But accusations of hypocrisy did not stop China and Hong Kong — Japan’s first and second-largest markets for agricultural and fisheries exports — from threatening to ban seafood imports if the release went ahead.
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