Japan to release radioactive water

This spring, Japan plans to begin releasing the highly radioactive water into the Pacific after treatment for most radioactive particles, as has been done elsewhere.

Every day at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan, officials flush over 100 tons of water through its corroded reactors to keep them cool after the calamitous meltdown of 2011. Then the highly radioactive water is pumped into hundreds of white and blue storage tanks that form a mazelike array around the plant.

For the past decade, that’s where the water has stayed. But with more than 1.3 million tons in the tanks, Japan is running out of room.

The Japanese government, saying there is no feasible alternative, has pledged to carry out the release with close attention to safety standards.

The plan has been endorsed by the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog. But the approach is increasingly alarming Japan’s neighbors.

Those in the South Pacific, who have suffered for decades from the fallout of a U.S. nuclear test in the Marshall Islands, are particularly skeptical of the promises of safety. Now, Japan is poised to forge ahead even as it risks alienating a region it has tried in recent years to cultivate.

When asked about Pacific nations’ concerns, a representative for the Japanese Foreign Ministry said that as the only country to have suffered from atomic bombings in war and given its connection with the 1954 test, Japan empathized with their fears around radiation exposure.

The Japanese Foreign Ministry’s representative indicated that the government expects to proceed with the planned releases, subject to safety confirmation by the Tokyo Electric Power Co., which operates the Fukushima plant, and the International Atomic Energy Agency.

But it seems increasingly likely that solving that problem will jeopardize Japan’s efforts to build closer bonds with its Pacific neighbors and exert greater influence in an increasingly contested region.