Japan The second round of discharge of treated wastewater from the plant will begin next week. Fukushima nuclear plantannounced the operator of the plant destroyed after an earthquake and tsunami in 2011.On August 24, Japan began dumping part of the 1.34 million tons of wastewater accumulated at the plant into the Pacific, an action that angered China and other countries.
“Inspections after the first discharge have been completed…. The (second) discharge will begin on October 5,” said operator TEPCO.
China banned imports of Japanese seafood after the first unloading, even though Tokyo, with the approval of the UN regulatory agency, insists the operation poses no risk.
In the first spill, which ended on September 11, around 7,800 tons of water were released into the Pacific Ocean out of the planned 1.34 million tons, the equivalent of the capacity of more than 500 Olympic swimming pools.
TEPCO ensures that the purified water does not contain radioactive elements except for tritium, which is found at safe levels.
The dumping, which should last for decades, seeks to free up space to eventually remove the radioactive fuel and debris from the crashed reactors.
“As was the case with the first discharge, we will continue to monitor tritium levels. We will continue to inform the public in a way that is easy to understand and based on scientific evidence,” Akira Ono, head of TEPCO, told reporters on Thursday.
China has accused Japan of using the ocean as a “dumping ground,” a version recently supported by the Solomon Islands, a small Pacific nation that has close ties with Beijing.
Russia, also with cold relations with Tokyo, is considering a veto on imports from Japan.
Despite Beijing’s rejection, Chinese fishermen apparently continue to fish in the same areas as Japanese vessels off the coast of the Japanese archipelago.
Rahm Emanuel, the US ambassador in Tokyo, last week posted images he said were of Chinese boats fishing off Japan’s coast on September 15.
AFP
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