Japan starts a new round of release amid criticisms at home and abroad

Civic groups and experts called for an immediate halt to the discharge of contaminated water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant into the ocean and the establishment of an international monitoring mechanism that will be effective over the long term.

Japan started the third round of nuclear-contaminated water discharge from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant on Thursday, despite numerous objections at home and abroad.

Approximately 7,800 metric tons of nuclear-contaminated water will be released into the sea during this round of discharge.

Dozens of Japanese citizens from multiple civic groups attended a rally in Tokyo on Wednesday, demanding that Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, the operator of the crippled Fukushima plant, immediately halt the ocean discharge.

Yuya Kamoshita, a Fukushima resident who was forced to evacuate to Tokyo, said he believes that simply monitoring the situation is not enough and that the release of contaminated water should be stopped.

"I don't want to eat contaminated fish or vegetables. Even mushrooms and wild foods harvested in Fukushima are still contaminated and cannot be shipped," said Kamoshita, head of a group of plaintiffs seeking damages from TEPCO and the Japanese government.

"I think Japanese and Chinese people share the same concern about not wanting to consume food that has been contaminated by radiation. It's natural for Chinese people to be concerned about Japanese seafood because if the radioactive water goes into the sea, the contamination spreads."

"We're all saying, 'Stop it, stop it', but I think the voices of those who are saying 'stop' need to get louder," Noriko Mukasa, a 72-year-old resident of Chiba prefecture, said.

On Thursday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a regular news conference that Japan has already discharged 15,600 tons of nuclear-contaminated water into the Pacific, transferring the risk of pollution to the world despite domestic and international opposition, which is extremely irresponsible.

The "safe and transparent" discharge plan claimed by the Japanese government is not convincing, Wang added.

Concerns voiced

Chen Xiang, an associate research fellow with the Institute of Japanese Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that Japan should allow stakeholders to conduct on-site investigations, which is crucial for understanding the potential environmental hazards resulting from the ocean discharge of nuclear-contaminated water.

Allowing stakeholders to conduct these tests not only serves as an effective oversight, but also as a precautionary measure, he said.

Although TEPCO said the water has been diluted and the concentration of radionuclides is within regulatory requirements, simply lowering the concentration of radioactive substances does not eliminate the danger to humans, said Masashi Goto, a former nuclear power plant engineer.

"The amount of nuclear-contaminated water released from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in the first round of discharge is greater than the average amount of nuclear wastewater released by all the nuclear power plants in Japan annually in the five years prior to the Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011. Even if the contaminated water is diluted, it will still have an impact on the marine environment," Goto, who is also a member of the Citizens' Commission on Nuclear Energy, said.

"The IAEA only stated that the data provided by TEPCO meets safety standards, but did not confirm the safety of ALPS (Advanced Liquid Processing System) treated water.

"Furthermore, the current research on the effects of human exposure to nuclear radiation is still incomplete. In this context, TEPCO's claim that diluting and discharging nuclear-contaminated water into the sea is safe is not scientifically sound," Goto said.

Moreover, the International Atomic Energy Agency is an organization established to facilitate the development of nuclear power plants, but it lacks credibility in supervising the safety of nuclear-contaminated water discharge, he added.

"Japan experienced a nuclear accident that resulted in a large amount of radioactive substances being generated, so the government has an obligation to make every effort to minimize the impact of the nuclear accident on the environment. However, the government has been neglecting this duty," he said.