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East Asia on Watch as IAEA Endorses Fukushima Wastewater Release Plan

by Eunice Kim

   SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA --

   The International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, has offered a final
   endorsement of Japan's plan to release treated nuclear wastewater from
   its crippled Fukushima Daiichi power plant into the Pacific Ocean.

   It's a move that Tokyo hopes will help allay concerns held by regional
   partners as well as its own citizens, including fishermen who have
   consistently been against it.

   From Tokyo on Tuesday, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said Japan's
   proposed plan was consistent with the agency's safety standards with
   "negligible radiological impact on the environment [anticipated],
   meaning the water, fish and sediment."

   He presented the final review, which had been initiated at Tokyo's
   request in 2021, to Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who will
   make the final call on how soon the controversial discharge will begin.

   The entire process is expected to take three to four decades, given the
   massive amount of radioactive water sitting in about 1,000 tanks on
   Japan's east coast. Kishida promised the sea release would proceed only
   if it were not harmful to the health of humans and of the environment.

   "Japan will continue to provide explanations to the Japanese people and
   to the international community in a sincere manner," he told media on
   Tuesday, sitting side by side with Grossi, "based on scientific
   evidence and with a high level of transparency."

   The IAEA's green light, which culminates a two-year investigation, was
   widely anticipated. The U.N. watchdog had cleared the submitted
   methodologies and data on six previous occasions.

   Operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) plans to treat, dilute
   and release -- in controlled amounts -- water that was used to cool the
   fuel rods of Fukushima units one, two and three, after reactor cores of
   all three melted down soon after the March 2011 earthquake ensuing
   tsunami. The event was considered the world's worst nuclear disaster
   since the Chernobyl crisis in 1986.

   A pumping and filtration process - dubbed the Advanced Liquid
   Processing System, or ALPS, will remove dozens of radionuclides from
   the contaminated water. Tritium, which cannot be removed from such a
   large volume of water, will be diluted to levels significantly below
   World Health Organization standards (to less than 1,500 becquerels per
   liter) before being released into the Pacific Ocean, according to
   Tokyo.

   Supporters of the water release plan underline the urgency of the
   project, as TEPCO says it will run out of space for additional
   contaminated water by the first half of 2024. Currently, more than a
   million tons of radioactive water sit in the tanks in an archipelago
   that is no stranger to natural disasters.

   Critics of the plan, including those in China, South Korea, and Pacific
   Island nations, raise the lack of full data sets for a proper
   evaluation to be made on safety. They've expressed concern over
   potential long-term dangers that lurk behind radionuclides that have
   half-lives ranging up to centuries and their unknown impact to the
   marine ecosystem and seafood.

   China's foreign ministry, soon after the IAEA's announcement on
   Tuesday, expressed strong regret over the "hasty" approval, and
   forewarned Japan would have to bear all of the consequences should it
   move forward with its wastewater release plan.

   As part of his four-day Japan visit, Grossi will open a new IAEA office
   at the Fukushima nuclear power plant site on Wednesday. He said the
   nuclear watchdog will keep a permanent presence to review, monitor and
   assess activity by Japan's decommissioning project for decades to come.