As the IAEA is about to give its conclusions on the safety of Japan’s plan to release radioactive wastewater into the Pacific Ocean, concerns of Koreans have been growing.
The director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Mariano Grossi, will visit Japan on Tuesday for three days. The agency will present its final safety review of Japan’s plan to release treated water from the Fukushima Daiichi plant into the Pacific Ocean.
(Update: On Tuesday, the United Nations nuclear agency endorsed Japan’s planned release of treated radioactive wastewater into the sea. It said it meets international standards and its environmental and health impact would be negligible.)
The radioactive water was used to cool damaged reactors at the Fukushima power plant. apan announced that 1.3 million metric tons of water stored in about 1,000 tanks needed to be removed to prevent leaks and further accidents.
Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, the plant operator, has completed the construction of the equipment and expects to receive a permit from Japanese authorities at the end of the week to begin the discharge.,
The IAEA doesn’t have the authority to approve or forbid the release but Japan hopes the agency’s conclusions will add credibility to its plan of discharging wastewater from the east coast nuclear plant damaged by a massive earthquake and tsunami in 2011.
Although the starting date is still undecided, it is said the operation could start this summer.
According to TEPCO, the wastewater goes through a filtration system called the Advanced Liquid Processing System that reduces the concentration of radioactive substances, excluding carbon-14 and tritium. So, each volume of treated water is then diluted in 100 volumes of seawater to reduce hazards.
Tritium is an isotope of hydrogen with two more neutrons than a normal hydrogen atom making its atomic nucleus unstable. It has low radioactive toxicity but can be dangerous if ingested in large quantities. Treating tritium-contaminated water is part of the usual operating procedure for nuclear power plants but in much smaller quantities.
The carbon-14 in the tanks is currently at concentrations of around 2 percent of the upper limit set by regulations, according to TEPCO. The IAEA found Japan’s measurements of the treated water to be discharged were “accurate and precise.”
Slowly released in the sea over three to four decades, Japan says it is harmless to people and marine life because radioactivity would fall below internationally accepted standards once released in the ocean.
Stockpiling of sea salt in South Korea
On the other hand, South Korea, China and some Pacific Island nations have strongly opposed the project, advancing the unexplored consequences on the ocean environment of such a large-scale plan.
On Friday, environmental activists protested outside the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, Korea, against the plan.
In a poll from research institute Gallup Korea released on Friday and conducted in early June, 78 percent of Koreans said they were worried about ocean and seafood contamination because of the nuclear wastewater discharge.
According to a joint survey for the Korean newspaper Hankook Ilbo and Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun carried out at the end of May, 84 percent of South Koreans disapproved of the release. Meanwhile, 60 percent of the respondents in Japan agreed with the plan.
With the release upcoming, Koreans have been buying and stockpiling sea salt, leading to soaring prices and empty shelves. The sales of fish are also reported to have slowed down.
The Korea Agro-Fisheries and Food Trade Corporation data show that the average price for 5 kilograms of salt increased by 16 percent in a month and 29 percent in a year.
Korean authorities say the price increased because of a rainy spring. But similar panic buys also occurred in 2011 after the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster.
In response to the salt price hike, the government on Friday said it is releasing about 50 tons of salt a day from stocks, at a 20% discount from market prices until July 11.
Since 2021, South Korea has maintained a comprehensive import ban on seafood and fisheries products from Fukushima Prefecture and seven neighboring regions affected by the nuclear disaster because of concerns over radioactive contamination.
During a press briefing on Friday, Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said they would seek South Korea and China to lift seafood import bans.
The Korean government assured it would remain in place, but as relations between Japan and South Korea have recently warmed up, so as speculations that the countries would agree on resuming seafood trade.
The seafood import ban is one of the few remaining issues in the relations between Seoul and Tokyo.
