Japan begins fourth release of treated radioactive water from Fukushima

Diplomacy

Japan begins fourth release of treated radioactive water from Fukushima

Published: 28 Feb. 2024, 17:25

LIM JEONG-WON
lim.jeongwon@joongang.co.kr

Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) officials show the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant to foreign correspondents during a press tour on Feb. 6, 2023. [YONHAP]

Japan began the fourth round of release of treated radioactive water from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant Wednesday, a move being closely monitored by neighboring countries, including Korea.

Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco), the operator of the Fukushima Daiichi plant, announced Monday that the fourth release will begin Wednesday, with 7,800 tons of treated radioactive water set to be released across 17 days. The release will be made after diluting the radioactive water with seawater and discharged through an undersea tunnel about one kilometer (0.62 miles) offshore in front of the Fukushima Daiichi plant.

Tepco began discharging treated radioactive water into the ocean on Aug. 24 last year. After the discharge Wednesday, which will be the last in the fiscal year 2023, from August 2023 to March 2024, the total discharge amount will be approximately 31,200 tons.

The fiscal year 2024 will begin this April, and the next discharge is expected to begin the same month. About 546 million tons of treated radioactive water are planned to be released into the ocean in another seven rounds starting in April.

Japan has argued since the first decision to release the treated radioactive water that such discharges are safe, a finding that has been backed by the IAEA, which issued a report in July last year saying the impact of the water’s release on people and the environment would be “negligible.”

However, the release of radioactive water, which was generated in the process of cooling reactor fuel at the plant after it suffered a meltdown during the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that struck northeastern Japan, has aroused significant opposition in Korea.

Seoul’s official position is that the discharge would pose “no scientific or technical problems,” but that it neither approves nor disapproves of the water release.

In response to the fourth release of treated radioactive water, civic organizations in Daegu held a press conference in front of Daegu City Hall on Wednesday morning and condemned the Japanese government and the discharge.

Japanese authorities are of the position that there have been no notable problems in the past three discharges so far. The concentration of tritium in seawater collected nearby was far below the standard for discharging water voluntarily decided upon by Tepco.

However, accidents have continued, including a worker who was exposed to waste liquid containing radioactive substances in the process of treating the radioactive water being hospitalized in October last year, and water containing radioactive substances leaking from the purification system on Feb. 7.

“Regarding this fourth discharge, our government will closely monitor real-time discharge data, tritium concentration in nearby waters and whether any abnormal situations occur to confirm whether Japan’s release of radioactive water is carried out as originally planned,” an official from Korea’s Nuclear Safety and Security Commission said during a briefing Wednesday. “Related information will be released in the future and conveyed through briefings.”

Rafael Grossi, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), is set to visit Japan from March 12 to 14 to inspect the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Grossi’s visit, which marks six months since the discharge of treated radioactive water from Fukushima Daiichi into the sea, is to check the local situation surrounding the power plant.

BY LIM JEONG-WON [lim.jeongwon@joongang.co.kr]