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Last Updated : 2024-05-08 04:24:00
Chinese customs authorities have banned seafood from Japan after the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant starting its wastewater release on Thursday.
The release is part of a controversial plan that has met fierce objections from many consumers as well as some regional countries, with Beijing leading that criticism.
The start of the release on Thursday afternoon sparked a fiery tirade from China which described the operation as a “selfish and irresponsible act.”
China’s customs department then announced it would stop importing all aquatic products originating from Japan – meaning the ban could potentially limit other oceanic products besides seafood such as sea salt and seaweed.
The move was aimed at preventing “the risk of radioactive contamination of food safety caused by Japan’s Fukushima nuclear contaminated water discharge,” and to protect the health of Chinese consumers, the customs department said in its statement.
Japan has argued throughout the building controversy that discharging the treated water is safe and urgently needed to free up space at the crippled nuclear power plant.
The discharge began 1 p.m. local time (midnight ET), according to state-owned electricity firm Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO).
The company said it expects to discharge only around 200 or 210 cubic meters of treated wastewater. From Friday, it plans to then continuously release 456 cubic meters of treated wastewater over a 24-hour period and a total of 7,800 cubic meters over a 17-day period.
TEPCO said that the operation would be suspended immediately and an investigation conducted if any abnormalities are detected in the discharge equipment or the dilution levels of the treated wastewater.
It will send a boat later Thursday into the harbor to collect samples to monitor and ensure the discharged treated wastewater meets international safety standards.
Japan’s devastating 2011 earthquake and tsunami caused water within the Fukushima nuclear plant to be contaminated with highly radioactive material. Since then, new water has been pumped in to cool fuel debris in the reactors, while ground and rainwater have leaked in, creating more radioactive wastewater.
The plan to release the water has been in the works for years, with authorities warning in 2019 that space was running out to store the material and they had “no other options” but to release it in a treated and highly diluted form. (CNN)
With this realse of contamination Japan is unkind to sea wildlife Thursday, 24 August 2023 04:14 PM
Japan will soon cause the radiation that is in their country to come through here into our seas with their dumping in the public shared sea waters. Our fisherman in a few weeks will soon be catching fish who may have swum in Japan. Our consumers have to be warned of Japan's atrocity against all sea wildlife as well as consumers who eat fish. Japan should keep the radiation stored somewhere in their country not just dump it like they have. Where is the UN, with it? China is nearby so their people get the initial radiation but then contamination will reach our shores too in time.
Ranil Thursday, 24 August 2023 10:13 PM
It's better than Chinese s*it they scoop-up from sewage and export to us as fertilizer.
N V Jen Thursday, 24 August 2023 07:01 PM
And some clueless Sri Lankan ministers still want to go ahead with building a nuclear reactor with Russia's assistance and putting peoples' safety at risk.
Hank Tuesday, 05 September 2023 08:48 PM
The sea current from Japan flows north to Alaska. The ban shoiuld include Alaskan king crab and Dungeness crabs because they will be accumulating radioactive waste by living in contaminated water and feed on contaminated seaweed and other food soaked in contaminated water.
Hank Tuesday, 05 September 2023 09:00 PM
come to think of it further, may be we should stop all Alaskan sea food because of the contaminated water flowing there.
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