CIVIC activists in Japan and a group of opposition lawmakers from South Korea recently held a meeting in Tokyo to hear concerns regarding the Japanese government’s discharge plan.
Prior to the meeting, activists and legislators were holding a strike outside the official residence of Japan’s prime minister to express their opposition.
“Today we demonstrated our attitude in front of the official residence of prime minister. It is very meaningful for us to work together to oppose the nuclear-contaminated water discharge plan,” Terumi Kataoka, a Japanese Civic Activist said.
According to the government of Japan and Tokyo Electric Power Company, contaminated water can be mixed with clean water to lower the chemical concentration and can be further cleaned using an advanced liquid processing system
Last Friday, the Japan Nuclear Regulation Authority issued an acceptance certificate to the water treatment facilities of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.
One of the experts on the issue, Hideyuki Ban, secretary general of the Tokyo-based citizens Nuclear Information Center expressed his concern about the so-called treated water.
“The so-called evaluation conducted by the government and TEPCO only evaluates the content of [radioactive elements] in one unit, and I think it is grossly inadequate. The radiation exposure through food is the most worrisome. Playing and swimming in seawater [can possibly bring exposure to radioactive elements],” Hideyuki Ban, Secretary-General, Citizens’ Nuclear, Information Center said.
He also expressed concern regarding Prime Minister Kishida’s statement to tell of his stand on the release of the contaminated water from the said plant which will take place this year.
“We are extremely angry at it, but we won’t give up. We will continue to require the government to change the decision,” Hideyuki Ban added.
It can be remembered that a magnitude 9 earthquake and a strong tsunami hit Japan on March 11, 2011.
Due to this, there were meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant which resulted in radiation leaks that reached a level 7 nuclear accident.
To note, the plant generates large quantities of water containing radioactive substances from the cool down of nuclear fuel in the reactor buildings.
Now, a million tons of radioactive water are hidden in a thousand storage tanks.
