Fukushima water release to cause ‘ centuries of damage’
▶ Japan urged not to turn blind eye to intl opposition
As Japan is set to decide whether to discharge radioactive water from the disaster- stricken nuclear complex in Fukushima Prefecture into the ocean, strong objections have arisen from the international community especially neighboring countries.
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga on Monday said dumping treated water containing radioactive substances to the ocean is “unavoidable” and there is “no time to delay” for the reconstruction of Fukushima.
The Japanese government will hold a meeting of ministers as early as Tuesday to formally decide on the plan, Kyodo News reported, citing sources familiar with the matter.
Concerns remain high among Japanese fishermen and consumers as well as neighboring countries such as South Korea and China.
Analysts and environmental organizations called on the Japanese government to think twice and be transparent and cautious in discharging the radioactive water into the ocean.
Japan should not turn a blind eye or pretend to be deaf when the international community generally doubts and objects to such a plan, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said on Monday.
The Global Times reached the Fukushima Fisheries Cooperative Association ( FCA) on Monday. And an employee with the FCA surnamed Sawada said that the association has never altered its position to oppose the Japanese government discharging the water into the sea.
As Japanese fishermen have not recovered from food safety concerns after the Fukushima disaster, discharging the radioactive water will worsen such concerns. It is still a question how Japanese fishermen will make a living after the discharge and how the government will compensate them, Sawada said.
Shaun Burnie, senior nuclear specialist with Greenpeace East Asia, said that it was previously believed that the East China Sea did not receive significant cesium contamination during the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011, but a model by Nanjing University in 2018 showed the cesium discharges from 2011 into the Pacific Ocean spread widely reaching the East China Sea by 2013, reaching their peak in 2019.
If those radionuclides persist in the environment for a long time, they will progressively enter the food chain, Burnie warned.
Despite some arguments that the ecological environment of the ocean could restore itself because the ocean has self- purification ability, Zhu Jianzhen, former vice president of Guangdong Ocean University, said it is an “untenable” claim.
“Unless we see this issue in the span of thousands of years, the adverse effects of the disposal in the ocean will not disappear in a short period of time or even a few hundred years,” he said.
Zhu also suggested that China can unite with neighboring countries to file legal cases against the Japanese government to withdraw the decision or demand compensation.
If radionuclides persist in the environment, they will progressively enter the food chain.