Kamikawa on a mission
Minister assures Pacific nations of safety in discharge
AS Japan’s Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa arrive in Fiji this week, her goal is to strengthen existing bilateral ties with Pacific nations, explore further spaces for collaboration and address the elephant in the room — the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant wastewater discharge.
Since August last year, Japan has proceeded to discharge wastewater, much to the consternation of some Pacific leaders. However, its administration maintains the discharge is nothing to fear, and that the country will not willingly discharge harmful materials into the ocean.
During the PALM Ministerial Interim Meeting (MIM) in Suva with Pacific leaders this week, Ms Kamikawa said Japan was first in the world to establish a forum to discuss future visions with the entire Pacific Island countries in 1997.
“Indeed, we share the Blue Pacific Continent. We also share the future. Therefore, Japan is committed to working hand in hand with Pacific Island countries for a resilient, sustainable and stable region,” Ms Kamikawa said.
Later, a briefing was held by deputy press secretary Mariko Kaneko, who said the topic of the Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS) treated water is continually discussed between Japan and its Pacific Island partners.
“Minister Kamikawa explained in the beginning of the interim meeting about this ALPS treated water, which is a system that removes all nuclides except tritium,” Ms Kaneko explained.
“Every nuclear power plant all over the world needs water to cool down the reactor, not only the reactor that had an accident like Fukushima; all the power plants need water to cool down and that water needs to be cleaned.”
She said any country with nuclear power plants cleaned this “initially contaminated water” through a system like ALPS, which removes most nuclides, except tritium.
“We were using a lot of water to cool down the reactor in the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant and this water, we could not continue just storing it in tanks.
“A lot of the other nuclear power plants in the rest of the world too discharge treated wastewaters in the ocean. It’s a common way of discharging.”
She said Japan made the decision to discharge in the ocean based on discussions and consultations with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the authority that regulates nuclear activities.
Ms Kaneko said this was also conveyed to the Japanese delegation that subsequently eyed it to Pacific leaders.
“We have always been in consultation with the IAEA and came to a decision that discharging this treated water is safe.
“And Prime Minister Kishida said when he received the delegation from the Pacific Islands Forum, we will not discharge water that would harm the health of both Japanese people and the PIF people.
“That is something that Minister Kamikawa also reiterated, and the discharge has already started, and monitoring has been going on regularly. The IAEA taskforce came in October with other participants from third country laboratories. They monitor and review how the Japanese Government has been monitoring and discharging this water.”
Initial reports, Ms Kaneko said, had concluded that there was nothing inconsistent with the international standard.
She also said Japan would continue to ensure the discharged water was kept at safe and acceptable levels.
“We will also continue dialogue and discussions with leaders in the Pacific, almost 10 bilateral meetings this week and through these bilateral meetings, we also explain directly.
“If the Pacific Island Forum Secretariat (PIFS) considers it necessary to have a discussion as a forum, then we will obviously consider it.
“We don’t have an established scheme for the dialogue, but we will always provide evidence-based information and in a transparent manner. It is on the webpage (IAEA) and I believe we have been doing everything we can to reduce and lessen and, eventually, remove all the concerns of the people.
“The area where the water is discharged from is the area where the Japanese people were very much hit by the tsunami.”
This area, Ms Kaneko said, is where they had fishing and agriculture and the people needed to recover from that disaster.
“The people there are working hard to recover from the disaster. They have already started fishing as well as farming and the Japanese people have started to eat fish and rice from that region.
“So, of course, we have to keep these waters safe. Otherwise, the people there will not be able to recover, so that is another thing that we wanted to convey.”
Last September, the Japanese Prime Minister announced a 20.7-billion yen emergency fund to assist those exporters hit by a ban on Japanese seafood in the aftermath of the treated radioactive wastewater release.