Hirokazu Matsuno, Secretary General of the Japanese government, responding to a request from journalists to comment on China and South Korea’s criticism of Tokyo’s plans to dump water from the Fukushima-1 emergency nuclear power plant, recalled that these countries themselves are dumping water containing radioactive tritium from their stations “as liquid waste.
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“Both China and South Korea are dumping water containing tritium as liquid waste from their plants. Moreover, the level of emissions from the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant is now much lower than at many nuclear facilities abroad,” he stressed.
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At the same time, Matsuno reiterated that the Japanese government “intends to continue explaining in a calm and responsible manner” in order to resolve all doubts about the plan to dump low-level radioactive water from the nuclear power plant into the ocean.
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Earlier this week, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi handed over to Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida a final report evaluating the plan to release water into the ocean. During the press conference, Grossi stressed that the Japanese government’s plan meets all international standards. He also noted that the water testing system is reliable, as the analyzes are carried out in several independent laboratories, which “confirms their objectivity.”
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Last week, TERSO, the operator of the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant, completed the construction of an underwater tunnel for discharging weakly radioactive water, purified from almost all radionuclides except tritium, into the ocean at a distance of one kilometer from the station.
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In January, the Japanese government decided that water discharges would begin this summer, but a specific timeline has not yet been made public. Earlier in July, Japanese media reported that Fumio Kishida would make a decision on the release start date after meeting with IAEA representatives and reviewing the report.
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The issue of water disposal methods has been considered since 2013. Among others, options were considered to mix it with cement and concrete underground, to separate hydrogen by electrolysis, and others. In the end, the government decided to start dumping water into the sea, after diluting it and bringing the concentration of tritium to 1500 becquerels per liter, which is 40 times less than the norms adopted in Japan for draining water into the sea from the operation of operating nuclear power plants – 60 thousand becquerels per liter .
