The discharge into the sea of treated wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear power plant will begin on Thursday, the Japanese Prime Minister announced on Tuesday, sparking immediate reactions and the fury of China, which summoned the ambassador of Japan.
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“Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong has summoned Japan’s Ambassador to China Hideo Tarumi to deliver a solemn statement after Japan’s announcement,” according to a statement from the Foreign Ministry.
“The ocean is the property of all humanity, it is not the place where Japan can arbitrarily release polluted water”Chinese diplomatic spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters on Tuesday.
Specifically, the Japanese government and the operator of the TEPCO plant assured, with the support of the UN nuclear agency, that the water does not imply health or environmental risks after a treatment that eliminates the majority of radioactive substances.
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The government will ask TEPCO “to prepare for the start of ocean spillage, based on the plan approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Authority,” Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said. And the start of the download is “scheduled for August 24 if weather and sea conditions do not prevent it,” he added after a government meeting.
“This is extremely selfish and irresponsible, since the spill will spread the risks of nuclear contamination to the rest of the world, and by doing so, Japan is putting its selfish interests above the long-term well-being of all humanity. China is seriously concerned and firmly opposes it. We have made serious representations to Japan,” read a statement issued by the Chinese government on the matter.
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He adds: “Japan has not yet addressed major international concerns, such as the long-term reliability of the purification facility, the authenticity and accuracy of the data on water contaminated with nuclear material, and the effectiveness of the monitoring device (… .) It is unjustified, unreasonable and unnecessary for Japan to push the dumping plan into the sea.”
Finally, the Chinese government points out that China will take the measures “necessary to protect the marine environment, guarantee food safety and safeguard the lives and health of people.”
In one of the worst radioactive disasters, the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power plant was destroyed by a massive earthquake followed by a tsunami that killed an estimated 18,000 people in March 2011.
Since then, the operator TEPCO has accumulated more than 1.3 million tons (the equivalent of the capacity of 500 Olympic swimming pools) of cooling water from the radioactive reactors, mixed with groundwater and rainwater that has leaked.
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TEPCO ensures that the water has been diluted and filtered to remove all radioactive substances with the exception of tritium, which is found at levels well below the dangerous threshold.
The plan foresees pouring the water at a maximum rate of 500,000 liters per day into the Pacific Ocean, off the northeast coast of Japan.
The environmental NGO Greenpeace denounced that the filtration process was flawed and that an “immense” amount of radioactive material will be dispersed into the sea in the coming decades.
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