A heated debate is escalating over Japan’s plan to release 1.3 million tonnes of treated wastewater into the sea from its failed Fukushima nuclear plant.
On Thursday, Greenpeace has labelled the move as “outrageous” and the Pacific Islands Forum has also voiced concerns about the discharge contaminating their waters. But a leading scientist has told Yahoo News Australia while the plan “sounds bad” it is actually safe and it wouldn’t impact his decision to eat fish from the area.
The problem began after a tsunami hit the prefecture’s Daiichi plant in 2011, knocking out its cooling system, and forcing engineers to use water to cool its towers to prevent them overheating. Over time, tens of thousands of tonnes of water has continued to build up and the country is running out of storage space, according to Vice.
The plan is contentious because nearby Pacific Islanders have shouldered a disproportionate amount of nuclear fallout from testing by nations including the United States, France and United Kingdom. “If it is safe, dump it in Tokyo, test it in Paris, and store it in Washington, but keep our Pacific nuclear-free,” Vanuatu stateswoman Motarilavoa Hilda Lini told The Guardian when the plan was first announced in 2021.