Fukushima: Japan must be transparent on water discharge, experts say
- Tokyo must ‘publish monitoring data so we can see the treatment ability in the first and second processes’, Greenpeace researcher says
- About 1.25 million tonnes of contaminated water are currently being held in about 1,000 tanks at the former power plant site
About 1.25 million tonnes of contaminated water are held in about 1,000 tanks at the Fukushima Daiichi site. The Japanese government decided on Tuesday it would release it into the Pacific Ocean in two years, and on Friday said it would draw up an action plan for the discharge.
It said it would also organise working group sessions to hear the opinions of local governments and fisheries organisations, and conduct a survey of local residents starting from next month.
“In the coming years, Japan needs to publish monitoring data so we can see the treatment ability in the first and second processes. This is a key question,” said Ray Lei Yuting, head of research unit at Greenpeace East Asia, adding that Greenpeace strongly opposed the discharge of the water.
Lei Yian, an associate professor in physics at Peking University, said third-party institutions should monitor the process.
“[Japan] said the concentrations of radionuclides were very low after the first treatment but later it was found out that some nuclides still had high concentrations,” he said.