Korean experts share more details of Fukushima visit

Diplomacy

Published: 31 May. 2023, 18:43

Korean experts share more details of Fukushima visit

Yoo Guk-hee, chairman of the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission, speaks with the press in Seoul on Wednesday about his team's inspections of the ruined Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant last week. [YONHAP]

The Korean group of experts who visited the ruined Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant last week said they will need further analysis of Japanese data to determine the safety of the treated radioactive water to be released into the sea from the plant.

“This inspectional visit was part of the ongoing work of the Korean government to assess the science and technicalities of Japan’s plan to release the contaminated water from Fukushima,” said Yoo Guk-hee, chairman of the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission, who headed the 21-person team to Fukushima last week.

The team inspected in person the plant’s treatment facilities such as the Advanced Liquid Processing System that handles the treatment of contaminated water and the K4 tanks storing the treated radioactive water. They also inspected the mechanisms of the underwater tunnel to be used for discharging the treated water.

While the team did not collect samples of the treated radioactive water to conduct independent tests, they acquired relevant data from Japan, including those on the level of radioactive materials in the water before treatment and after.

“Based on the data we received from Tokyo Electric Power Co. [Tepco], the company is analyzing the concentration levels of 64 types of nuclides in the water,” said Yoo, in speaking with the press in Seoul on Wednesday. “On major 10 types of nuclides, Tepco is analyzing their concentration levels before and after treatment, at least once a week.”

Yoo said however that the team is unable to announce at the moment whether they found the treated water at the plant to be safe for release to the sea.

“We will need further analyses of the data obtained and make conclusions after consulting also the data from the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency], which is taking samples,” Yoo said.

Korea, a member of the IAEA, has been taking part in its monitoring program since Japan announced in 2021 its plans to gradually release tons of treated radioactive water from the defunct power plant into the sea, over some 30 years.

A massive earthquake and tsunami struck Japan on March 11, 2011, destroying the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

The plant's operator, Tepco, has said that all radioactive materials will be removed from the to-be-released water except tritium, which experts say is not harmful to human health in small amounts.

The plan, supported by the IAEA, has drawn strong opposition from fishing communities both in Japan and Korea.

It was one of several issues to sour relations between Japan and Korea for years. From March this year, however, the two countries’ leaders in reconciliatory gestures announced measures such as allowing a Korean inspectional visit to the plant.

“The actual verification program is being conducted by the IAEA, and it is expected that the IAEA will announce its findings sooner or later,” Yoo said.

The inspectional visit has been highly criticized by both civic groups and members of the liberal Diplomatic Party, many of whom found the Korean inspectional visit perfunctory without a direct sampling and analysis of the treated water.

The party’s leadership including Lee Jae-myung is scheduled to hold a large-scale rally in Busan on Saturday to protest Japan’s plans to release the treated radioactive water.

BY ESTHER CHUNG [chung.juhee@joongang.co.kr]