China Daily Global Edition (USA)
Japan urged not to ‘turn blind eye’ on wastewater
Beijing stepped up criticism on Monday of Tokyo’s plan to formally decide to discharge radioactive wastewater into the Pacific Ocean, urging Japan not to “turn a blind eye and a deaf ear” to the global community’s great concerns.
“China has delivered its serious concerns through diplomatic channels to Japan in order to safeguard international public interests as well as the health and safety of the Chinese people,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said on Monday.
The wastewater has been stored in tanks since the deadly earthquake and tsunami hit northeastern Japan’s coastal Fukushima prefecture in 2011 and the subsequent meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear power plant.
The planned discharge of tritium-contaminated wastewater into the sea has triggered protests in Japan and across the globe.
The radioactive leak caused by the meltdown “has already had a profound impact on the marine environment”, food safety and human health, the Foreign Ministry warned in an earlier comment on Friday.
On Monday, Zhao, the spokesman, said the disposal of the wastewater is related to the fundamental interests of neighboring countries and the global public, and further damage should be effectively prevented in terms of the marine environment, food safety and human health “by securing the participation by all relevant parties”.
The disposal of the wastewater “is unavoidable and cannot be postponed forever”, given the ongoing reconstruction at Fukushima, Japan’s public broadcaster NHK quoted Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga as saying.
NHK said the Japanese government will hold a meeting on Tuesday at which the ministers involved will finalize the decision to discharge the wastewater.
In response, the Republic of Korea expressed “serious concerns” on Monday and said the planned discharge may have a direct and indirect impact on its people’s safety and the surrounding environment, according to a spokesperson for the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The Fukushima power plant meltdown was “one of the world’s most serious nuclear accidents so far”, and Tokyo should act “in a strong sense of responsibility and prudently tackle” the treatment of the wastewater at Fukushima, said Zhao, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman.
Since Japan frequently asks other nations to honor their international duties, “now the global community is watching Japan”, and Japan cannot turn a blind eye to this, Zhao added.
Some Japanese government officials have said that tritium, which is not harmful in small amounts, cannot be removed from the water, but all other radionuclides selected for treatment can be reduced to “safe levels” for release, the Associated Press reported.
But “some scientists say the long-term impact on marine life from low-dose exposure from such large volumes of water is unknown”, AP reported.
In another development, veteran Chinese diplomat Liu Xiaoming recently assumed his new post as the Chinese government’s third special representative on Korean Peninsula affairs.
“Ambassador Liu is a senior diplomat with rich experience and is familiar with Korean Peninsula affairs,” Zhao said.
Born in 1956, Liu used to work at the Chinese embassy in the United States and the Foreign Ministry’s Department of American and Oceanian Affairs, and he was China’s ambassador to Egypt from 2001 to 2003.
He served as Chinese ambassador to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in 2006 to 2009 before heading to London to lead the Chinese embassy in the United Kingdom for 11 years.
Liu’s major duty as the special representative is to “assist the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in coordinating the handling of affairs involving the peninsula”, and he will maintain communication and cooperation with relevant parties and play a constructive role in promoting the political settlement process of the Korean Peninsula issue, Zhao said.
China has delivered its serious concerns through diplomatic channels to Japan in order to safeguard international public interests as well as the health and safety of the Chinese people.” Zhao Lijian, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman
On Tuesday, the Japanese government is expected to announce its decision to discharge the radioactive water accumulated at the Fukushima nuclear plant into the sea.
The decision looks set to be met with wide opposition from the international community and the Japanese people.
Although some in Japan claim discharging the contaminated water into the sea will not harm the marine ecology and humans, as it has vowed to reduce the concentration of the radioactive tritium in the contaminated water to one-fortieth of its national standard, it is more accurate, as many have said, to say that the harm will take a long time to become known.
Even after the water is treated, it will still contain radionuclides whose half-lives are comparatively long, and they will certainly contaminate the environment and harm living creatures.
Aside from the tritium, even if its concentration can be lowered to a safe level as Japan has promised, there are also large amounts of other kinds of radionuclides, such as radioactive strontium, cesium, iodine and carbon, which the Japanese government has made no mention of.
Once they enter the marine food chain, they will expose humans directly to the threat of nuclear radiation. It is estimated if Japan releases all its nuclear contaminated water into the sea, the whole Pacific will be facing high radiation levels in less than half a year. It will not only be the neighboring countries that will suffer from it, but the whole world will pay the price as it will only be a matter of time for the ocean currents to carry the nuclear pollutants around the world.
Japan is obliged to abide by the Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and other Matter, to which it is a contracting state.
As experts have said, to store the nuclear contaminated water in special water storage tanks is the best solution so far. Japan and the Tokyo Electric Power Company should spend more money buying land and building the water tanks. This is their responsibility to the world. A drop in the bucket in their coffers can save the world almost permanent trouble. It is not a question of can or cannot, but one of whether it wants to or not.
Countries should unite to pressure Japan from shifting its faults onto the whole world.