IWAKI: In the wake of the August release of wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan, United Nations (U.N.) inspectors started the process to verify the safety of seafood on Thursday.
The wastewater discharge prompted China and Russia to impose bans on Japanese seafood imports. Japan maintains that the water is safe, a viewpoint supported by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The ongoing saga stems from the disastrous events of 2011, when a devastating tsunami led to the meltdown of three reactors at Fukushima-Daiichi, resulting in one of the world’s most catastrophic nuclear incidents. Since then, an astounding 540 Olympic swimming pools’ worth of water have been collected and stored at the site.
Japan’s claims
Japan claims that the collected water has undergone filtration using its advanced ALPS (Advanced Liquid Processing System) technology to remove radioactive substances, with the exception of tritium, which has been diluted with seawater. Moreover, extensive tests conducted by Japanese authorities assert that tritium levels are well within safe limits.
To provide an independent assessment and verification of these findings, an IAEA team, comprising scientists from China, South Korea, and Canada, has been conducting sampling activities involving fish, water, and sediment this week. The primary focus of their investigation is to determine the accuracy of tritium level measurements conducted by Japanese laboratories.
Paul McGinnity, a member of the IAEA mission, stated that tritium is the concern because tritium levels, as you know, are relatively high because it is not removed by the ALPS process. I can say that we don’t expect to see any change in tritium levels, certainly in the fish. We do expect to see a small rise in levels of tritium in seawater samples very close to the discharge point. But otherwise, we don’t. We expect to find levels that are very similar to what we measured last year.
The collected samples will be sent to laboratories in the team members’ home countries for independent analysis, and the IAEA will evaluate and publish the results, providing a neutral and scientifically rigorous assessment of the situation.
In the midst of these developments, Russia has joined China in banning Japanese seafood imports this week. While Russia’s import volume is relatively small compared to other countries, this move echoes the concerns raised by China. Japan has characterized these bans as politically motivated and without a sound scientific basis.
The ultimate goal of releasing the treated wastewater into the sea is to create space for the removal of highly dangerous radioactive fuel and debris from the damaged reactors at the Fukushima nuclear power plant. The ongoing scrutiny by international organizations like the U.N. and the IAEA underscores the importance of a transparent and science-based approach in addressing the complex challenges posed by nuclear accidents and their aftermath.
