Fukushima’s fishing industry survived a nuclear disaster. 12 years on, it fears Tokyo’s next move may finish it off

Story by Emiko Jozuka • Yesterday - CNN


It is still morning when Kinzaburo Shiga, 77, returns to Onahama port after catching a trawler full of fish off Japan’s eastern coast.

That's because the port is around 40 miles from the Fukushima nuclear plant 

CNN goes inside the Fukushima nuclear plant where wastewater is being treated

Duration 3:36    View on Watch

But the third-generation fisherman won’t head straight to market. First, he’ll test his catch for radiation.

It’s a ritual he’s repeated for more than a decade since a devastating earthquake and tsunami triggered a nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant in 2011, spewing deadly radioactive particles into the surrounding area.

Radiation from the damaged nuclear plant leaked into the sea, prompting authorities to suspend fishing operations off the coast of three prefectures that had previously provided Japan with half of its catch.

That ban lasted over a year and even after it was lifted, Fukushima-based fishermen like Shiga were for years mostly limited to collecting samples for radioactivity tests on behalf of the state-owned electricity firm Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, rather than taking their catches to market.

Ocean currents have since dispersed the contaminated water enough that radioactive Cesium is nearly undetectable in fish from Fukushima prefecture. Japan lifted its last remaining restrictions on fish from the area in 2021, and most countries have eased import restrictions.

Shiga and others in the industry thought they’d put the nightmare of the past years behind them.

So when Japan followed through on plans to gradually release more than 1 million metric tons of filtered wastewater into the Pacific Ocean from the summer of 2023 – an action the government says is necessary to decommission the plant safely – the industry reeled.

The Japanese government and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a United Nations body promoting the peaceful use of nuclear energy, say the controlled release, which is expected to take decades, will meet international safety regulations and not harm the environment, as the water will be treated to remove radioactive elements – with the exception of tritium – and diluted more than 100 times.

But with the deadline for the planned water release looming this summer, Fukushima’s fishermen fear that – whether the release is safe or not – the move will undermine consumer confidence in their catches and once again threaten the way of life they have fought so hard to recover.

A year before the 2011 disaster, government data shows Fukushima’s coastal fishing industry landed catches worth around $69 million. By 2018, that figure had dwindled to little more than $17 million. By 2022, while it had recovered somewhat to around $26 million, it was still just a fraction of what it once was.

“I know that the government has decided to go ahead with the policy of releasing treated wastewater into the sea, but for us fishers, it really feels like they made this decision without our full consent,” said Shiga, adding that it made his “blood boil.”

The wastewater dilemma

In 2011, the earthquake and tsunami cut off the power supply to the Fukushima plant, disabling its cooling systems. This caused the reactor cores to overheat and contaminate water within the plant with highly radioactive material.

Since then, new water has been pumped in to cool fuel debris in the reactors. At the same time, ground and rainwater have leaked in, creating more radioactive wastewater that now needs to be stored and treated.

TEPCO has built over 1,000 massive tanks on the site to store what is now 1.32 million metric tons of wastewater – enough to fill more than 500 Olympic pools.

But space is running out and the company says building more tanks isn’t an option. As decommissioning work approaches a critical stage, it says it needs to free up space to store the fuel debris from the stricken plant.

A Trade Ministry official told CNN the government considered five options, including hydrogen release, underground burial and vapor release, which would have seen wastewater boiled and released into the atmosphere, but in April 2021, officials approved the controlled release of the water into the sea. They reasoned that other nuclear facilities around the world had done this and it would be easier to monitor.


Fukushima’s fishing industry survived a nuclear disaster. 12 years on, it fears Tokyo’s next move may finish it off© Provided by CNNTEPCO has built over 1,000 massive tanks on this site to store what is now 1.32 million metric tons of wastewater, in Okuma of Fukushima prefecture. - Daniel Campisi/CNN

The IAEA told CNN it will also monitor and review the release for as long as necessary, at the request of the Japanese government.

While radioactive wastewater contains dangerous elements including Cesium and Strontium, TEPCO says the majority of those particles can be separated from the water and removed. TEPCO claims its filtering system, called advanced liquid processing (ALPS), can bring down the amount of those elements far below regulatory standards.

But one hydrogen isotope cannot be taken away, as there is currently no technology available to do so. This isotope is radioactive tritium, and the scientific community is divided on the risk its dissemination carries.

How safe is tritium?

TEPCO and the Japanese government say that tritium occurs naturally in the environment. They say that the concentration of tritiated water it plans to discharge would be on par or lower than the amount other countries allow. Since 2021, they’ve been on a mission to promote public awareness about the wastewater and their plans for it, releasing videos and creating a multilingual portal.

The IAEA also says that releasing small amounts of tritium can be safe because it is already present in small quantities in everything from rain and sea water to tap water; small amounts even exist naturally in the human body.

However, experts are divided over the concept of “safe” radiation, with some arguing it is to a large extent a political rather than a scientific concept.


Fukushima’s fishing industry survived a nuclear disaster. 12 years on, it fears Tokyo’s next move may finish it off© Provided by CNNConstruction workers assemble an undersea tunnel through which TEPCO plans to release treated wastewater into the sea, in Okuma of Fukushima prefecture on April 12, 2023. - Daniel Campisi/CNN

“For decades, nuclear power plants worldwide – including in the United States, Canada, Britain, France, China and South Korea – have been releasing waste contaminated with tritium, each under its own national quota,” said Tim Mousseau, an environmental scientist at the University of South Carolina.

But Mousseau argues tritium is overlooked because many countries are invested in nuclear energy, and “there’s no way to produce it without also generating vast amounts of tritium.”

“If people started picking on TEPCO in Fukushima, then the practice of releasing tritium to the environment in all of these other nuclear power plants would need to be examined as well. So, it opens up a can of worms,” he said, adding the biological consequences of exposure to tritium have not been studied sufficiently.

In 2012, a French literature review study said tritium can be toxic to the DNA and reproductive processes of aquatic animals, particularly invertebrates, and the sensitivity of different species to various levels of tritium needs to be further investigated.

TEPCO’s website states that it started assessing the effect of tritium on fish from Fukushima last year. A technical document published by the company in 2022 stated that “fish tritium measurement is very difficult.” It says “there are only a few analysis agencies capable of performing this measurement,” and they do not all produce the same findings.


Fukushima’s fishing industry survived a nuclear disaster. 12 years on, it fears Tokyo’s next move may finish it off© Provided by CNNA TEPCO researcher conducts a radiation impact assessment of the ALPS-treated water in a laboratory in Okuma of Fukushima prefecture on April 12, 2023. - Daniel Campisi/CNN

Currently, countries set different standards for the concentration of tritium allowed in drinking water. For example. Australia, which has no nuclear power plants, allows more than 76,000 becquerel per liter, a measure used to gauge radioactivity, while the WHO’s limit is 10,000. Meanwhile, the US and the European Union have much more conservative limits – 740 and 100 becquerel per liter respectively.

Ian Fairlie, an independent consultant on radioactivity in the environment, told CNN that “two wrongs don’t make a right” when it comes to Japan’s decision to release tritiated water. He argues TEPCO should build more storage tanks to allow for the decay of the radioactive tritium, which has a half-life of 12.3 years.

Lack of trust for the ‘nuclear village’

In Japan, the Fukushima wastewater issue has become highly contentious due to a lack of trust among influential advocates of nuclear energy, or what’s locally known as the “nuclear village.”

The informal group includes members of Japan’s ruling party (the Liberal Democratic Party), the Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry and the nuclear industry.

“(The nuclear village) used to tell us that nuclear energy is 100% safe – but it wasn’t, as the Fukushima Daiichi plant accident revealed,” said Koichi Nakano, a political scientist at Sophia University, in Tokyo.

A series of missteps after the disaster further eroded public trust, according to a 2016 report written by Kohta Juraku, a researcher at Tokyo Denki University.

For instance, in 2012, the government and TEPCO presented a proposed action plan to local fishing representatives that involved pumping up groundwater before it flooded into the nuclear reactor buildings and releasing it into the sea. Fishing bodies were on board but the plan was it postponed until 2014 after 300 tons of radioactive water leaked from the plant into the sea, infuriating fishers.

Standing between the towering wastewater tanks, Kenichi Takahara, a risk communicator at TEPCO told CNN that the company is aware that people in Japan and overseas are skeptical of the company’s assurances.

“While TEPCO has been promoting nuclear safety in the first place, the nuclear accident happened in 2011. So, we understand that there are many people who can’t trust us,” said the TEPCO official.

“We are hoping that if the IAEA and other organizations can show them that there is no problem, people will understand us,” Takahara added.

The problem of changing mindsets

Japanese officials told CNN that they have taken the voices of locals in Fukushima into consideration and will send a message to other nations and consumers around the world that the treated water is safe to release.

Tokyo has also created a fund of 30 billion yen ($225 million) to buy and store freezable seafood if consumer confidence takes a hit following the release, an official from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry told CNN.

And in an effort to convince both fishermen and consumers that the water to be released is safe, in March 2022 TEPCO started conducting tests on the tritium concentrations in fish, shellfish and seaweed reared in regular seawater as compared to those raised in ALPS-treated water.


Fukushima’s fishing industry survived a nuclear disaster. 12 years on, it fears Tokyo’s next move may finish it off© Provided by CNNA TEPCO researcher feeds flounder that are being raised on site in both seawater and ALPS treated water that has been diluted with seawater, in Okuma of Fukushima prefecture on April 12, 2023. - Daniel Campisi/CNN

But Satsuki Takahashi, an anthropologist specializing in sustainability studies at Hosei University, warned that changing mindsets is no easy feat.

“From the consumer’s perspective, whether it’s processed or not, this is wastewater. It’s hard for (people) to grasp what safety means or what risks mean,” she said.

“One of the biggest issues in terms of this wastewater, for those who used to purchase the fish from Fukushima before the disaster, is whether they are going to come back and buy the fish once the label states its provenance.”

For fishers like Shiga, the work to restore their way of life is far from over.

“We’re taking the initiative and appealing to consumers so they understand (our products are safe), but we have a hard time reaching them,” said Shiga, who fears that countries may reimpose bans on imports of Fukushima fish following the wastewater release.

“If the government releases the water into the sea off Fukushima now, everything we’ve done so far and our current efforts will be wasted,” he said.

CNN’s Moeri Karasawa, Carlotta Dotto, Natalie Leung, Henrik Pettersson, Will Mullery and Alberto Mier contributed from Tokyo, Hong Kong, London, Atlanta and Berkeley.
CNN.com

Japan planning to release over a million tonnes of radioactive water into sea from Fukushima power plant

Coolant contains toxic element which cannot be removed

Harry Cockburn
Friday 31 January 2020 20:03

Tanks containing contaminated water at the Fukushima nuclear plant ( AP )

Massive amounts of radioactive water being stored at Japan’s Fukushima power plant could be released into the sea under plans provisionally accepted by the country’s government.

Tokyo Electric has collected nearly 1.2 million tonnes of contaminated water from cooling pipes used to keep fuel cores from melting since the plant was devastated by the earthquake and tsunami which hit eastern Japan in 2011.

The water, containing 62 radioactive elements, is stored in huge tanks on the site of the now disabled power plant, but Tokyo Electric has said it will run out of room to store the water by 2022.

The water has been treated and Tokyo Electric said it is able to remove all radioactive particles from the water to levels not harmful to humans, except tritium, an isotope of hydrogen which is more difficult to separate from water.

A panel of experts working for Japan’s economy and industry ministry concluded that letting the water run into the sea was the best option after looking at other proposals. The only other viable option considered was to let the water evaporate.
Inside the twisted remains of Fukushima nuclear plant

Tokyo Electric Power Company officials and journalists 

and journalists visited the site yesterday

In Friday’s proposal, the ministry said the controlled release to the sea is superior because its route is predictable and easier to sample and monitor.

“Compared to evaporation, ocean release can be done more securely,” the committee said, pointing to common practice around the world where nuclear power stations operating under normal conditions routinely release water containing tritium into the sea.

But the decision will alarm neighbouring countries and comes ahead of Japan’s hosting of the 2020 Olympic Games, with some events due to be held less than 60km away from the Fukushima site.

Fishermen and residents also fear health effects from releasing the radioactive water as well as harm to the region’s image and farm industries.

Neighbouring South Korea has retained a ban on imports of seafood from Japan’s Fukushima region imposed after the nuclear disaster and summoned a senior Japanese embassy official last year to explain how the Fukushima water would be dealt with, Reuters reported.

South Korean athletes are planning to bring their own radiation detectors and food to the Games.

Experts say there is no established method to fully separate tritium from water, but it is not a problem in small amounts. Government officials also say tritium is routinely released from existing nuclear power plants around the world.

The report acknowledges the water releases would harm industries that still face reluctant consumers despite safety checks. It promised to reinforce monitoring of tritium levels and food safety checks to address safety concerns.

Additional reporting by agencies

Read more

Fukushima executives cleared over nuclear disaster
Why Fukushima is Japan’s most underrated hidden gem
California wine made after Fukushima is more radioactive, study finds
Lethal levels of radiation detected at Fukushima nuclear plant leak

Japan fishermen, locals seek halt to Fukushima water release

AFP 

Published September 4, 2023 

More than 100 fishermen and locals living near Fukushima will file a lawsuit this week seeking to stop the release of wastewater from the stricken Japanese nuclear plant, they said on Monday.

Twelve years after one of the world’s worst nuclear accidents, Japan began on August 24 discharging treated cooling water diluted with seawater into the Pacific, insisting it was safe.

Many Japanese fishermen have been against the release, fearing that it will undo years of efforts to improve the industry’s image in the wake of the 2011 catastrophe.

The more than 100 plaintiffs in Fukushima and neighbouring prefectures will file the lawsuit in the Fukushima District Court on Friday, Sugie Tanji, a member of the group’s secretariat, told AFP.

“The government failed to keep to its promise of gaining agreement from fishermen before taking such a decision to release,” she said.

“This is a wrong policy as it ignores strong opposition from not only the Fukushima fishermen’s cooperative but also from cooperatives across the country,” a group statement said.

“The release to the ocean can never be tolerated as it brings about further suffering to victims of the nuclear accident,” it added.

The water release has generated a fierce backlash from China, including a blanket ban on Japanese seafood imports.

Japanese government offices and businesses have also been bombarded with thousands of nuisance calls from Chinese phone numbers.

The Tokyo city government alone received 34,300 calls from August 24-31, it says.

Japanese government officials have made efforts to reassure the public that fish and other produce from Fukushima is safe to eat.

Last week, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and the US envoy to Japan, Rahm Emanuel, among others, ate Fukushima fish in front of TV cameras.

‘Ours is the best’

Before the water release, China was Japan’s biggest export destination for seafood and Beijing’s ban has people in the sector worried.

Tokyo wholesaler Yoshinobu Yoshihashi’s business has seen shipments of items including oysters, sea urchins and splendid alfonsino to some Asian neighbours “more than half”.

“We’re having it quite rough,” Yoshihashi told AFP at the huge Toyosu fish market on Saturday.

“Especially in places like Hong Kong and Macau, the damage is quite acute. We’re hearing from our clients there that their customers aren’t coming in any more, and that they are shunning Japanese fish,” he said.

The Japanese government “should have done more to communicate globally the safety of the water before releasing it. There are some people even within Japan who say they’re scared,” he said.

“I have always been and still am proud of Japanese fish. Ours is the best,” he added.

Kishida has already promised aid for the industry and ministers were reportedly set to hash out details on Monday.

Japan boosts aid to fish sector after Fukushima discharge

The release of wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear plant prompted China to ban Japan's seafood imports. Japanese officials say they are now looking to boost export markets in places such as Taiwan, the US and Europe.

Japan's government has announced a new aid package of 20.7 billion yen ($141 million; €130 million) to help the local fishery industry following a Chinese ban on all Japanese seafood exports.

Beijing imposed the blanket measure after Japan started discharging treated radioactive water from the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean on August 24.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said the funding came on top of an existing 80 billion yen set aside to help seafood businesses stay afloat and combat damage to the reputation of Japanese products.

"We will protect the Japanese fisheries industry at all costs," Kishida said.

The new aid package will be used to find markets for Japanese seafood to replace China and fund government purchases of seafood. Officials said they planned to foster new export destinations in Taiwan, the US, Europe, the Middle East, and some southeast Asian countries.

How have the bans affected Japan's fish sector?

Before the release of the wastewater, China was the biggest export destination for Japanese fish, accounting for 22.5% of the total.

Hong Kong, the second-biggest market with 20%, has also blocked seafood imports from Fukushima and nine other prefectures.

The bans are a major blow to Japan's seafood industry, affecting prices and sales of products as far away from Fukushima as the northern island of Hokkaido.
Japan's Fukushima decision may impact fish exports

A massive earthquake and tsunami in 2011 caused core meltdowns at the Fukushima plant. Since then, the shut-down reactors have had to be cooled with water that was then stored in tanks.

The decision to start releasing that wastewater into the ocean, a process that is expected to take decades to complete, was met with an outcry at home and abroad.

The government has sought to reassure the public that seafood from Fukushima is safe to eat. Last week, Kishida and US envoy to Japan Rahm Emanuel visited the area to eat local fish in front of TV cameras.

Prime Minister Kishida wants the Japanese public to eat more seafood to help the local industry hit by China's ban

 Kyodo/AP Photo/picture alliance

Japanese officials say all seawater and fish samples taken since the release of the treated wastewater have been far below set safety limits for radioactivity.

nm/jcg (AP, AFP)

 

IAEA team gathers marine samples near Fukushima as treated radioactive water is released into sea

by Mari Yamaguchi

A team of experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) with

 scientists from China, South Korea and Canada observe the inshore fish

 during a morning auction at Hisanohama Port in Iwaki, northeastern Japan 

Thursday, Oct. 19, 2023. They are visiting Fukushima for its first marine

 sampling mission since the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant started 

releasing the treated radioactive wastewater into the sea.

 Credit: AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, Pool

A member of the International Atomic Energy Agency team visiting Fukushima for its first marine sampling since the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant started releasing treated radioactive wastewater into the sea said Thursday he does not expect any rise in radiation levels in the fish caught in the regional seas.

The IAEA team watched flounder and other popular kinds of fish being caught off the coast earlier Thursday and brought on boats to the Hisanohama port in southern Fukushima for an auction.

"I can say that we don't expect to see any change starting in the fish," said Paul McGinnity, an IAEA marine radiology scientist.

A small rise in the levels of tritium, which cannot be removed from the Fukushima Daiichi wastewater by the plant's treatment system called ALPS, is possible in locations close to the discharge points, but the levels of radioactivity are expected to be similar to those measured before the discharge last year, he said.

Fukushima Daiichi started releasing wastewater into the sea on Aug. 24. The release, which is expected to continue for decades, has been strongly opposed by fishing groups and neighboring countries including South Korea, where hundreds of people have protested.

China immediately banned all imports of Japanese seafood the day the release began, badly hurting Japanese seafood producers, processors and exporters, and Russia recently joined China in the trade restrictions.

A team of experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) with scientists from

 China, South Korea and Canada observe the inshore fish as the sample at Hisanohama

 Port in Iwaki, northeastern Japan Thursday, Oct. 19, 2023. They are visiting Fukushima 

its first marine sampling mission since the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant started

 releasing the treated radioactive wastewater into the sea. 

Credit: AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, Pool

The IAEA has reviewed the safety of the wastewater release and concluded in July that if carried out as planned, it would have a negligible impact on the environment, marine life and human health.

During the Oct. 16-23 visit, the IAEA team also inspected the collection and processing of seawater and marine sediment near the plant, which suffered triple meltdowns following the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

The IAEA's visit is significant not only because it is the first since the discharge began but also since the IAEA will be able to see firsthand how the fish is sampled and packed, McGinnity said. This will help them better evaluate the results, not just from laboratory testing and data analysis, he said.

IAEA selected six species of fish—olive flounder, crimson sea bream, redwing searobin, Japanese jack mackerel, silver croaker and vermiculated puffer fish—because they are known to have higher levels of radioactivity than other species due to the areas they tend to move around in, McGinnity said.

The Japanese government asked the IAEA to conduct the environmental and fish sampling to build confidence about the data that Japan provides amid skepticism in some IAEA member states, McGinnity said without identifying which countries.

The sample collection team includes two staff from the IAEA Marine Environment Laboratories in Monaco, as well as experts from laboratories in China, South Korea and Canada.

A team of experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) with scientists from

 China, South Korea and Canada observe the inshore fish during a morning auction at 

Hisanohama Port in Iwaki, northeastern Japan Thursday, Oct. 19, 2023. They are visiting 

Fukushima for its first marine sampling mission since the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear 

power plant started releasing the treated radioactive wastewater into the sea. 

Credit: AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, Pool

The fish collected Thursday were to be shipped to a Fisheries Agency laboratory in Chiba, near Tokyo, where the IAEA team will inspect them on Friday.

They will send identical samples to about a dozen participating laboratories, including in Japan, China, South Korea and Canada, for comparison and analysis of radioactivity and evaluation, the IAEA said.

The sampling work will be followed by a separate IAEA task force that will review the safety of the treated radioactive water.

Japan's government has set up a relief fund to help find new markets and reduce the impact of China's seafood ban. Measures include the temporary purchase, freezing and storage of seafood and promotion of seafood sales at home.

TEPCO and the government say discharging the water into the sea is unavoidable because the tanks will reach their 1.37 million-ton capacity next year and space at the plant will be needed for its decommissioning, which is expected to take decades, if it is achievable at all.

They say the water is treated to reduce radioactive materials to safe levels, and then is diluted with seawater by hundreds of times to make it much safer than international standards. Some experts say such long-term release of low-dose radioactivity is unprecedented and requires close monitoring.

© 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

Chinese scientists join Fukushima water review

'Absolutely logical' Japan's Fukushima water release draws interest: IAEA chief

Protesters march toward the Japanese Embassy during rally against the Japanese government's decision to release treated radioactive water from the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant, in Seoul, South Korea, Saturday, July 8, 2023. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

09 Jul 2023 

SEOUL: It is "absolutely logical" that Japan's plan to release treated radioactive water from its Fukushima nuclear plant is attracting great interest in the region, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, said on Sunday (Jul 9).

Grossi also said he understands concerns remain over the plan but added that a review by the IAEA released last week found it was "in conformity with international safety standards" if executed according to plan.

Grossi met with South Korea's opposition Democratic Party members on Sunday who expressed strong public concerns over Japan's plan and criticised the IAEA's findings.

"The issue at hand today has attracted a lot of interest, and this is absolutely logical because the actions and the way in which Japan will be addressing this ... have important implications," Grossi said in the meeting.

Students wearing masks featuring Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi attend a protest against Japan's plan to discharge treated radioactive water from the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima plant into the ocean, in Seoul, South Korea, Jul 7, 2023. (Photo: Reuters/Yonhap)

A Democratic Party member who chairs a special committee on the issue said the IAEA's findings had "shortcomings", and the widespread public concerns over safety in the country were "legitimate and reasonable".

"We deeply regret that the IAEA concluded Japan's plan to discharge contaminated water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant meets international standards," Wi Seong-gon, the committee chairman, told Grossi.

Grossi was met with angry protests by civic groups as he arrived in South Korea on Friday from Japan and drew street rallies on Saturday criticising the plan.

South Korea's government said on Friday it respected the IAEA's report and that its own analysis had found the release will not have "any meaningful impact" on its waters.

Protesters stage a rally against the Japanese government's decision to release treated radioactive water from the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant, in Seoul, South Korea, Jul 8, 2023.

 (Photo: AP/Ahn Young-joon)

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin on Wednesday criticised the move towards discharging the water and threatened action if the plan should move ahead.

North Korea also criticised IAEA's backing of Japan's plan, calling it "unjust" and a demonstration of double standards, citing the UN nuclear watchdog's work to curb Pyongyang's nuclear programme.

North Korea has faced UN Security Council sanctions for its six underground nuclear tests.

South Korea: IAEA chief discusses Fukushima water concerns

Rafael Grossi traveled to South Korea to advocate for Japan's plan to release water from the Fukushima nuclear plant amid harsh criticism from the South Korean public and opposition party.

IAEA Chief Rafael Grossi was met by protesters upon arrival in South Korea

YONHAP NEWS AGENCY via REUTERS

Rafael Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), arrived in South Korea following his trip to Japan, in an attempt to allay concerns about Japan's plan to release treated radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear plant.

Grossi's three-day visit included meetings with South Korea's foreign minister and a top nuclear safety official.

Demonstrators criticized the IAEA for not being able to verify environmental standards

Yonhap/picture alliance

Upon arriving in South Korea, Grossi was met by protesters at Gimpo Airport in Seoul. Hundreds of protesters took to the streets in central Seoul, criticizing the IAEA's review as inadequate. Demonstrators held signs criticizing the IAEA and Japan's plan, with one stating, "IAEA is not qualified to verify environmental standards."

There had been "no disagreement" among experts involved in the review that gave the go-ahead for the decades-long project, the IAEA chief said in an interview with South Korea's Yonhap news agency.

"This is the final comprehensive report... No experts have come to me saying he or she disagrees on the contents," he said.

"It was a very thorough process."

Japan to release treated Fukushima wastewater into Pacific  02:43

Opposition wants to put halt to the plan

South Korea conducted an independent review of the plan and concluded that Japan would meet or exceed international standards, with the release having minimal environmental consequences.

During a press conference held in Japan, Grossi expressed his intention to also meet with South Korea's opposition party, which had been critical of the discharge plan.

The leader of the opposition Democratic Party, Lee Jae-myung, has urged the government to try to stop the plan, suggesting that it be taken to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea.

The South Korean government stated that it respected the IAEA's report. President Yoo Suk Yeol's administration has been cautious in its stance on Japan's proposal, aiming to foster better ties with Tokyo.

Nevertheless, the plan has sparked anger and concern among South Koreans, leading some individuals to stock up on sea salt. Despite South Korea giving its approval to the discharge plan, a ban on food and seafood products from the Fukushima region will remain active.

los/ab (AFP, Reuters)

South Koreans protest against Japan’s Fukushima water release plan during IAEA chief’s visit

Editorial by SCMP 

No room for mistakes with release of water from Fukushima

As Japan prepares to put plan at wrecked nuclear power station into action, the radiation concerns of neighbouring countries must be addressed

Published:  8 Jul, 2023

People gather near the Japanese Embassy in Seoul on Friday to protest against Japan’s plan to release treated radioactive water from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the sea. 

Photo: Kyodo

Radiation cannot be seen or felt, so it is often feared regardless of whether it exists at benign natural levels or dangerous doses.

It is understandable that grave concern has been raised by Japan’s plans to release radioactive water from its wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean.

The water was contaminated while cooling three reactors that melted down after a massive 2011 earthquake and tsunami that hit the country’s coast killing thousands of people. For 12 years, the waste liquid has been stored on-site in 1,000 huge tanks that are now nearly full.

Japan has proposed resolving the crisis by filtering and diluting the water before releasing it through an underwater tunnel that stretches 1km (0.6 miles) into the ocean.



Why fears remain about Japan's plan to release treated Fukushima nuclear plant water into the sea

Tokyo insists that radiation levels in the water will be below international safety standards, an assessment supported by the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Neighbouring countries are far from convinced. Pacific island nations fear the water will contribute to nuclear contamination of the so-called Blue Pacific.

South Korea is on edge with panicked consumers buying sea salt, and seafood markets stepping up the frequency of radiation tests. The Seoul government, however, said yesterday that it respected the IAEA review.

China has extended its ban on edible imports from 10 Japanese prefectures, including Fukushima, and will require full screening of all shipments from other regions instead of spot checks.

Customs officials said Tokyo “failed to fully reflect expert opinions” and “all necessary measures” must be taken ensure the safety of Chinese consumers, who are already boycotting cosmetics from Japan.

IAEA did not fully consult experts in Fukushima report: Chinese researcher
7 Jul 2023


Yesterday, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said the government was considering an outright ban on food from high-risk areas. Hong Kong currently does not allow imports of live or frozen aquatic products from Fukushima and four neighbouring prefectures without a certificate showing they are free of radiation.

Such action will deepen concerns among those in Japan’s fishing industry who have already voiced opposition to the plan saying it will only increase reputational damage from the initial disaster.

The liquid is too dangerous to simply leave in place, so it seems unlikely that Japan will change its plans.

But since releasing more than 1 million tonnes of water may take two to three decades, Tokyo must diligently monitor the discharge for as long as it takes.

It is imperative that those authorities concerned act responsibly and provide clear, transparent details about how such hazardous waste is being handled, since failure to get it right may have a profound impact on public health.

China imposes ban on Japanese seafood over Fukushima water release plan

JAPAN

No tritium found in fish after treated Fukushima water release

Simon Druker
Sat, August 26, 2023 

Fish samples from the ocean around Japan’s Fukushima nuclear complex are registering normal and do not contain radioactive contaminants after the discharge of treated wastewater from the plant, officials said Saturday. File Photo by Keizo Mori/UPI


Aug. 26 (UPI) -- Fish samples from the ocean around Japan's Fukushima nuclear complex are registering normal and do not contain radioactive contaminants after the discharge of treated wastewater from the plant, officials said Saturday.

The Japanese government did not detect any amount of tritium in the first fish samples taken in the water around the damaged plant.

Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries tested fish caught within five miles of the discharged water, the Kyodo News Agency reported.

The declaration comes after Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings said Friday none of the radioactive element was detectable in seawater samples.

The company expects to gradually release up to 22 trillion becquerels of tritium per year from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station over the next 20 or 30 years.

An aerial picture of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant and its tanks containing radioactive water in Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, the day before treated water began being released into the ocean. Photo by JiJi Press/EPA-EFE

Officials on Thursday began releasing treated water from the damaged nuclear plant into the ocean, amid strong environmental pushback from the fishing industry and neighboring countries.

China on Thursday suspended all seafood imports from Japan ahead of the water discharge, citing the possibility of tritium contamination.

The radioactive isotope of hydrogen is considered unstable and radioactive. Tritium occurs naturally but can also be produced as a byproduct of nuclear reactors.

The United Nations nuclear watchdog has said the procedure aligned with global safety standards.

Groundwater around the stricken nuclear facility has been contaminated since a catastrophic explosion crippled the site in March 2011.

Testing is taking place within a 25-mile radius of the water discharge site.

More than 1 million tons of water have already been stored for treatment and eventual discharge.

Last year, Tokyo Electric said it would raise seafood at the Fukushima site in order to dispel rumors about contamination.

Officials will continue measuring tritium levels in both water and fish each time treated wastewater from the Fukushima plant is released into the ocean.

Volunteer moms are distressed about the water being discharged from the Fukushima nuclear plant

Janis Mackey Frayer and Larissa Gao
Sat, August 26, 2023


IWAKI, Japan — In a laboratory on the third floor of a nondescript building here, a group of volunteers pour water from plastic jerry cans through filters into large round-bottomed vessels. Others chop up dried fish and other foods and put them into small blenders about the size of a coffee bean grinder.

These people aren’t trained scientists. They’re mothers who are worried about the legacy being left for their children after the decision to release treated radioactive water from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean.

The gradual discharge of an estimated 1.3 million metric tons of wastewater began Thursday, after repeated assurances from the Japanese government and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, that it is safe.

But around 40 miles away, in the lab where they test water samples drawn off the shore near the plant, the lab’s manager, Ai Kimura, said she was worried that the discharge might ruin the ecosystem in this area on Japan’s central-eastern coast.

“I worry about the negative legacy, which is the contamination,” Kimura, 44, told NBC News Thursday, adding that it was a “negative legacy to our children.”

Ai Kimura. (Arata Yamamoto / NBC News)

The water being released, enough to fill 500 Olympic-size swimming pools and still building, has been used to cool fuel rods in the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant’s reactors since a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami in 2011 set off a meltdown that spewed radioactive particles into the air in the world’s worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986, in what was then the Soviet Union.

Though the water is filtered and diluted to remove most radioactive elements, it still contains low levels of tritium, an isotope of hydrogen that is difficult to strip out.

Fukushima shoreline. (Arata Yamamoto / NBC News)

The Japanese government and the plant’s operator, the Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco), have said that the water which they say will be released over the next 30 to 40 years and is being held in hundreds of tanks on land, must be removed to prevent accidental leaks and make room for the plant’s decommissioning, more than a decade after the disaster.

Tepco, which has in the past been accused of a lack of transparency, has vowed to put safety first and stop the discharges if problems arise.

Shortly after the first batch of Fukushima water was discharged on Thursday, the IAEA said that its on-site analysis confirmed that the levels of tritium were “far below” the operational limit.

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Friday that the United States was also satisfied with Japan’s “safe, transparent, and science-based process.”

There have nonetheless been loud objections from neighboring countries, including China, where customs authorities announced an immediate ban on all imports of Japanese “aquatic products,” including seafood, to “comprehensively guard against the risk of radioactive contamination to food safety caused by nuclear-contaminated water discharges.”

Although the South Korean government reiterated this week that it sees no scientific or technical issue with the water’s release, police in the country on Thursday arrested 16 protesters accused of trying to break into the Japanese Embassy in the capital, Seoul.

Dolly Peng, 23, looks at sushi in a Hong Kong store that has a sign saying it is from Norway, Argentina and Canada. (Cheng Cheng / NBC News )

But according to data posted online by the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, water with much higher levels of tritium has been discharged by nuclear facilities in countries including China, South Korea, Canada and France in line with local regulations.

In the area around the Fukushima plant the impact of the disaster is eerily clear. Three miles away, in the town of Futaba, many of the abandoned houses look like they haven’t been touched since the day of the earthquake.

Curtains flap through broken windows, pictures and clocks are still on the walls and debris is strewn all over. Cars and bicycles are covered in dust.

Back in the lab, which operates as a nonprofit called Tarachin and funds its state-of-the-art equipment with donations, Kimura said that its testing had confirmed that radiation levels in agricultural products and the ocean in the accident region had been decreasing gradually.

But she said she feared the discharge might ruin the promising future of this area’s ecosystem.

“If the treated water is once again discharged, we believe that the same tragedy from 12 years ago will be repeated,” she said.

Janis Mackey Frayer reported from Fukushima, and Larissa Gao from Hong Kong.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com

At Fukushima Daiichi, decommissioning the nuclear plant is far more challenging than water release

MARI YAMAGUCHI
Sat, August 26, 2023

This aerial view shows the treated water diluted by seawater flowing into a secondary water then into a connected undersea tunnel for an offshore discharge at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Fukushima, northern Japan, Thursday, Aug. 24, 2023. For the wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, managing the ever-growing radioactive water held in more than 1,000 tanks has been a safety risk and a burden since the meltdown in March 2011. The start of treated wastewater release Thursday marked a milestone for the decommissioning, which is expected to take decades. 

(Kyodo News via AP, File)

FUTABA, Japan (AP) — For the wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, managing the ever-growing volume of radioactive wastewater held in more than 1,000 tanks has been a safety risk and a burden since the meltdown in March 2011. Its release marks a milestone for the decommissioning, which is expected to take decades.

But it's just the beginning of the challenges ahead, such as the removal of the fatally radioactive melted fuel debris that remains in the three damaged reactors, a daunting task if ever accomplished.

Here's a look at what's going on with the plant's decommissioning:

WHAT HAPPENED AT FUKUSHIMA DAIICHI?

A magnitude 9.0 quake on March 11, 2011, triggered a massive tsunami that destroyed the plant’s power supply and cooling systems, causing three reactors to melt and spew large amounts of radiation. Highly contaminated cooling water applied to the damaged reactors has leaked continuously into building basements and mixed with groundwater. The water is collected and treated. Then, some is recycled as cooling water for melted fuel, while the rest is held in tanks that cover much of the plant.

WHY RELEASE THE WATER?

Fukushima Daiichi has struggled to handle the contaminated water since the 2011 disaster. The government and the plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, say the tanks must be removed to make way for facilities needed to decommission the plant, such as storage space for melted fuel debris and other highly contaminated waste.

WILL THE WASTEWATER RELEASE PUSH DECOMMISSIONING FORWARD?

Not right away, because the water release is slow and the decommissioning is making little progress. TEPCO says it plans to release 31,200 tons of treated water by the end of March 2024, which would empty only 10 tanks out of 1,000 because of the continued production of wastewater at the plant.

The pace will later pick up, and about 1/3 of the tanks will be removed over the next 10 years, freeing up space for the plant's decommissioning, said TEPCO executive Junichi Matsumoto, who is in charge of the treated water release. He says the water would be released gradually over the span of 30 years, but as long as the melted fuel stays in the reactors, it requires cooling water, which creates more wastewater.

Emptied tanks also need to be scrapped for storage. Highly radioactive sludge, a byproduct of filtering at the treatment machine, also is a concern.

WHAT CHALLENGES ARE AHEAD?

About 880 tons of fatally radioactive melted nuclear fuel remain inside the reactors. Robotic probes have provided some information but the status of the melted debris remains largely unknown.

Earlier this year, a remote-controlled underwater vehicle successfully collected a tiny sample from inside Unit 1’s reactor — only a spoonful of the melted fuel debris in the three reactors. That’s 10 times the amount of damaged fuel removed at the Three Mile Island cleanup following its 1979 partial core melt.

Trial removal of melted debris using a giant remote-controlled robotic arm will begin in Unit 2 later this year after a nearly two-year delay. Spent fuel removal from Unit 1 reactor’s cooling pool is set to start in 2027 after a 10-year delay. Once all the spent fuel is removed, the focus will turn in 2031 to taking melted debris out of the reactors. But debris removal methods for two other reactors have not been decided.

Matsumoto says “technical difficulty involving the decommissioning is much higher” than the water release and involves higher risks of exposures by plant workers to remove spent fuel or melted fuel.

“Measures to reduce radiation exposure risks by plant workers will be increasingly difficult,” Matsumoto said. “Reduction of exposure risks is the basis for achieving both Fukushima's recovery and decommissioning.”

HOW BADLY WERE THE REACTORS DAMAGED?

Inside the worst-hit Unit 1, most of its reactor core melted and fell to the bottom of the primary containment chamber and possibly further into the concrete basement. A robotic probe sent inside the Unit 1 primary containment chamber found that its pedestal — the main supporting structure directly under its core — was extensively damaged.

Most of its thick concrete exterior was missing, exposing the internal steel reinforcement, and the nuclear regulators have requested TEPCO to make risk assessment.

CAN DECOMMISSIONING END BY 2051 AS PLANNED?

The government has stuck to its initial 30-to-40-year target for completing the decommissioning, without defining what that means.

An overly ambitious schedule could result in unnecessary radiation exposures for plant workers and excess environmental damage. Some experts say it would be impossible to remove all the melted fuel debris by 2051 and would take 50-100 years, if achieved at all.

10 years after Fukushima, safety is still nuclear power's greatest challenge


Najmedin Meshkati,

 Professor of Engineering and International Relations, 

University of Southern California

 Kiyoshi Kurokawa,

 Professor Emeritus, University of Tokyo

Fri, March 5, 2021

An International Atomic Energy Agency investigator examines Reactor Unit 3 at the damaged Fukushima Daiichi plant, May 27, 2011. Greg Webb, IAEA/Flickr, CC BY-SA

Ten years ago, on March 11, 2011, the biggest recorded earthquake in Japanese history hit the country’s northeast coast. It was followed by a tsunami that traveled up to 6 miles (10 kilometers) inland, reaching heights of over 140 feet (43.3 meters) in some areas and sweeping entire towns away in seconds.

This disaster left nearly 20,000 people dead or missing. It also destroyed the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station and released radioactive materials over a large area. The accident triggered widespread evacuations, large economic losses and the eventual shutdown of all nuclear power plants in Japan. A decade later, the nuclear industry has yet to fully to address safety concerns that Fukushima exposed.

We are scholars specializing in engineering and medicine and public policy, and have advised our respective governments on nuclear power safety. Kiyoshi Kurokawa chaired an independent national commission, known as the NAIIC, created by the Diet of Japan to investigate the root causes of the Fukushima Daiichi accident. Najmedin Meshkati served as a member and technical adviser to a committee appointed by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences to identify lessons from this event for making U.S. nuclear plants safer and more secure.

Those reviews and many others concluded that Fukushima was a man-made accident, triggered by natural hazards, that could and should have been avoided. Experts widely agreed that the root causes were lax regulatory oversight in Japan and an ineffective safety culture at the utility that operated the plant.

These problems are far from unique to Japan. As long as commercial nuclear power plants operate anywhere in the world, we believe it is critical for all nations to learn from what happened at Fukushima and continue doubling down on nuclear safety.

Failing to anticipate and plan

The 2011 disaster delivered a devastating one-two punch to the Fukushima plant. First, the magnitude 9.0 earthquake knocked out off-site electric power. Next, the tsunami breached the plant’s protective sea wall and swamped portions of the site.

Flooding disabled monitoring, control and cooling functions in multiple units of the six-reactor complex. Despite heroic efforts by plant workers, three reactors sustained severe damage to their radioactive cores and three reactor buildings were damaged by hydrogen explosions.

Off-site releases of radioactive materials contaminated land in Fukushima and several neighboring prefectures. Some 165,000 people left the area, and the Japanese government established an exclusion zone around the plant that extended over 311 square miles (807 kilometers) in its largest phase.

For the first time in the history of constitutional democratic Japan, the Japanese Parliament passed a law creating an independent national commission to investigate the root causes of this disaster. In its report, the commission concluded that Japan’s Nuclear Safety Commission had never been independent from the industry, nor from the powerful Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry, which promotes nuclear power.

For its part, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, had a history of disregard for safety. The company had recently released an error-prone assessment of tsunami hazards at Fukushima that significantly underestimated the risks.


Events at the Onagawa Nuclear Power Station, located 39 miles (64 kilometers) from Fukushima, told a contrasting story. Onogawa, which was owned and operated by the Tohoku Electric Power Company, was closer to the earthquake’s epicenter and was hit by an even larger tsunami. Its three operating reactors were the same type and vintage as those at Fukushima, and were under the same weak regulatory oversight.

But Onogawa shut down safely and was remarkably undamaged. In our view, this was because the Tohoku utility had a deep-seated, proactive safety culture. The company learned from earthquakes and tsunamis elsewhere – including a major disaster in Chile in 2010 – and continuously improved its countermeasures, while TEPCO overlooked and ignored these warnings.
Regulatory capture and safety culture

When a regulated industry manages to cajole, control or manipulate agencies that oversee it, rendering them feckless and subservient, the result is known as regulatory capture. As the NAIIC report concluded, Fukushima was a textbook example. Japanese regulators “did not monitor or supervise nuclear safety….They avoided their direct responsibilities by letting operators apply regulations on a voluntary basis,” the report observed.

Effective regulation is necessary for nuclear safety. Utilities also need to create internal safety cultures – a set of characteristics and attitudes that make safety issues an overriding priority. For an industry, safety culture functions like the human body’s immune system, protecting it against pathogens and fending off diseases.

A plant that fosters a positive safety culture encourages employees to ask questions and to apply a rigorous and prudent approach to all aspects of their jobs. It also fosters open communications between line workers and management. But TEPCO’s culture reflected a Japanese mindset that emphasizes hierarchy and acquiescence and discourages asking questions.

There is ample evidence that human factors such as operator errors and poor safety culture played an instrumental key role in all three major accidents that have occurred at nuclear power plants: Three Mile Island in the U.S. in 1979, Chernobyl in Ukraine in 1986 and Fukushima Daiichi in 2011. Unless nuclear nations do better on both counts, this list is likely to grow.
Global nuclear safety grade: Incomplete

Today there are some 440 nuclear power reactors operating around the world, with about 50 under construction in countries including China, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.

Many advocates argue that in light of the threat of climate change and the increasing need for carbon-free baseload electricity generation, nuclear power should play a role in the world’s future energy mix. Others call for abolishing nuclear power. But that may not be feasible in the foreseeable future.

In our view, the most urgent priority is developing tough, system-oriented nuclear safety standards, strong safety cultures and much closer cooperation between countries and their independent regulators. We see worrisome indications in the U.S. that independent nuclear regulation is eroding, and that nuclear utilities are resisting pressure to learn and delaying adoption of internationally accepted safety practices, such as adding filters to prevent radioactive releases from reactor containment buildings with the same characteristics as Fukushima Daiichi.

Man in protective radiation suit and respirator.

The most crucial lesson we see is the need to counteract nuclear nationalism and isolationism. Ensuring close cooperation between countries developing nuclear projects is essential today as the forces of populism, nationalism and anti-globalism spread.

We also believe the International Atomic Energy Agency, whose mission is promoting safe, secure and peaceful uses of nuclear energy, should urge its member states to find a balance between national sovereignty and international responsibility when it comes to operating nuclear power reactors in their territories. As Chernobyl and Fukushima taught the world, radiation fallout does not stop at national boundaries.


As a start, Persian Gulf countries should set aside political wrangling and recognize that with the startup of a nuclear power plant in the United Arab Emirates and others planned in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, they have a common interest in nuclear safety and collective emergency response. The entire region is vulnerable to radiation fallout and water contamination from a nuclear accident anywhere in the Gulf.

We believe the world remains at the same juncture it faced in 1989, when then-Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. made this perceptive argument:

“A decade ago, Three Mile Island was the spark that ignited the funeral pyre for a once-promising energy source. As the nuclear industry asks the nation for a second look in the context of global warming, it is fair to watch how its advocates respond to strengthened safety oversight. That will be the measure of whether nuclear energy becomes a phoenix or an extinct species.”

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Kiyoshi Kurokawa, University of Tokyo and Najmedin Meshkati, University of Southern California.

Read more:

The demise of US nuclear power in 4 charts


A decade after the Deepwater Horizon explosion, offshore drilling is still unsafe

Kiyoshi Kurokawa, MD, MACP, is Professor Emeritus at the University of Tokyo and Professor at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, Tokyo. He served as Chairman of the National Diet of Japan Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission, which released its official report in July 2012. The English translation of his book, Regulatory Capture: Will Japan Change? is expected to be released in 2021.

Najmedin Meshkati, Ph.D., CPE, is a Professor of Civil/Environmental, Industrial & Systems Engineering, and International Relations at the University of Southern California (USC). He teaches and conducts research on technological systems safety and has visited many nuclear power stations around the world, including Chernobyl (1997), Mihama (1999), and Fukushima Daiichi and Daini (2012). He served as a member and technical advisor on the U.S. National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council Committee on Lessons Learned from the Fukushima Nuclear Accident for Improving Safety and Security of U.S. Nuclear Plants.