A member of the team of experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) observes the inshore fish as the sample at Hisanohama Port in Iwaki, northeastern Japan Thursday, Oct. 19, 2023. They are visiting Fukushima for its first marine sampling mission since the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant started releasing the treated radioactive wastewater into the sea.
| Photo Credit: AP

A team of international scientists collected fish samples from a port town near Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant on Thursday, seeking to assess the impact of the plant’s recent release of treated radioactive water into the sea.

The study by the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog is the first since the water release began in August, a move that drew criticism from local fisherman and prompted China to ban all imports of marine products from Japan over food safety fears.

Scientists from China, South Korea and Canada observed the collection of fish samples delivered fresh off the boat at Hisanohama port, about 50 kilometres south of the plant which was destroyed in the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

The samples will be sent to laboratories in each country for independent testing, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said.

Also Read | What’s happening at Fukushima plant 12 years after meltdown?

“The Japanese government has requested that we do this and one of the reasons they want us to do this is to try and strengthen confidence in the data that Japan is producing,” said Paul McGinnity, a research scientist with the IAEA overseeing the survey.

More than a million metric tons of water – enough to fill 500 Olympic-sized swimming pools – was contaminated from contact with fuel rods at the reactor following the 2011 disaster.

Before being released, the water is filtered to remove isotopes, leaving only tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen that is hard to separate, plant operator Tepco says. The water is also diluted until tritium levels fall below regulatory limits.

Tritium is considered to be relatively harmless because its radiation is not energetic enough to penetrate human skin; however, when ingested at levels above those in the released water it can raise cancer risks, a Scientific American article said in 2014.

U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

The United Nations (UN) nuclear chief on September 18 said he asked to meet Iran’s President on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly to try to reverse Tehran’s “uncalled for” ban on “a very sizable chunk” of the agency’s inspectors.

Rafael Grossi stressed that the Iranian government’s removal of many agency cameras and electronic monitoring systems installed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) also make it impossible to give assurances about the country’s nuclear programme.

Mr. Grossi said he wrote to President Ebrahim Raisi telling him it is “very important” to meet about Tehran’s targeting of inspectors, including “some of the best and most experienced”.

“I’m waiting for an answer,” Mr. Grossi said in an interview with The Associated Press on September 18.

He also warned that escalating fighting is increasing the danger of a nuclear accident at Europe’s largest nuclear plant in Ukraine. Mr. Grossi said he is seeking to re-establish a dialogue with North Korea, which expelled UN nuclear weapons inspectors in 2009.

And he invited China to see how the IAEA tests treated water released from Japan’s Fukushima Daichi nuclear plant, which led Beijing to ban Japanese seafood.

The IAEA chief said Iran has the right to determine who enters the country, but he said he didn’t understand why Tehran was withdrawing authorisation for a “good number” of inspectors, which is “making my job much more difficult”. He called it a step in the wrong direction.

“It’s very difficult to get the expertise to go to very sophisticated uranium enrichment facilities with thousands of (centrifuge) cascades, lots of tubing and piping, and it requires … a lot of experience,” he explained. “So, when you start limiting that … I have to say, this is not good. Stop it!” Iran has denied impeding the work of IAEA inspectors though it has also been years since its experts have been able to examine surveillance footage.

The Vienna-based IAEA reported earlier this month that Iran had slowed the pace of enriching uranium to nearly weapons-grade levels. That was seen as a sign that Tehran was trying to ease tensions after years of strain with the United States, and one that took place as the rivals were negotiating a prisoner swap and the release of billions in frozen Iranian assets — which all took place on Monday.

Since Iran started limiting the actions of IAEA inspectors a little over a year ago, Mr. Grossi said, the agency hasn’t been able to see how many centrifuges and parts needed to assemble them are being produced.

So when the IAEA has to draw a baseline of where Iran’s nuclear programme is, he said, “How do I do it?” Mr. Grossi said military operations are increasing near Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is on the front line of the Ukrainian counter-offensive. The June 6 destruction of the Kakhovka Dam in Russian-controlled territory led to deadly flooding, ruined crops in one of the world’s breadbaskets and lowered the level of water used to cool Zaporizhzhia’s reactors.

“Complications are adding up,” Mr. Grossi said, “and making the safety of the plant very, very fragile.” Initially, he said he urged both sides to adopt a no-fire zone outside the plant. That became impossible. So he has been urging the Ukrainians and Russians not to attack any nuclear plant.

Zaporizhzhia is in a Russian-controlled area but is staffed mainly by Ukrainians. There are also some Russian experts and IAEA inspectors who from time to time have acted as “a buffer” and defused some tense situations, Mr. Grossi said.

The IAEA chief called North Korea’s growing nuclear programme “one of the most difficult issues we have in front of us”.

Since the expulsion of IAEA inspectors in 2009, Mr. Grossi said, the agency has followed what Pyongyang has done from afar. “North Korea has become a de facto nuclear weapon possessor state,” he said, and that is “not a good development”.

Mr. Grossi said North Korea’s programme, including enrichment and construction of new reactors, has been growing without international monitoring or assessment of its safety. He wouldn’t say who the IAEA is engaging with to try to “turn the page” with North Korea but did say: “I am optimistic.” As for China’s concerns about the water being discharged from Japan’s Fukushima Daichi nuclear plant, Mr. Grossi said IAEA daily monitoring shows the level of tritium, a radionucleide that could be problematic, is extremely low.

The IAEA chief said South Korea also had concerns about the water being discharged from Fukushima, which was damaged by a massive earthquake and tsunami in 2011. He said he spoke to the President and Foreign Minister, and South Korea sent experts to see how the monitoring of the discharged water is being carried out.

Mr. Grossi said he wrote to Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi a few days ago making a similar offer to explain the IAEA’s activities. He expressed hope that he could meet Wang in New York “to dispel doubts.” said Mr. Grossi: “I’m eager and available.”

An aerial photo of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Okuma, Fukushima prefecture, Japan. File
| Photo Credit: AP

“The first phase of releasing treated waste water from Fukushima that has angered China will end on September 11 as planned,” the stricken Japanese nuclear plant’s operator said.

“TEPCO added that levels of radioactive tritium in tested seawater samples near the plant in north-east Japan were within safe limits,” according to a statement on September 7.

Why is Japan planning to flush Fukushima wastewater into the ocean?

Japan began on August 24 discharging into the Pacific some of the 1.34 million tonnes of waste water that has collected since a tsunami crippled the facility in 2011.

Japan insists that the discharge is safe, a view backed by the UN atomic agency, but China banned all seafood imports from its neighbour, accusing it of treating the sea like a “sewer”.

Announcing the end of the first phase of releasing 7,800 tonnes of the water on September 11, TEPCO gave no date for the start of the second discharge.

“After completion of the first discharge, we will conduct an inspection of (the) entire … water dilution/discharge facility and review the operational records from the first discharge,” it said.

It added that a “leak alarm” sounded on Wednesday in a waste water transfer line, but that no leak was detected. Staff “quickly conducted a field inspection in accordance with safety check procedures and it was confirmed that there was no leak of… treated water,” the statement said.

The water, equivalent to 540 Olympic pools’ worth, has been used to cool the three reactors that went into meltdown in 2011, in one of the world’s worst nuclear catastrophes.

Japan says that all radioactive elements have been filtered out except tritium, levels of which are well within safe limits and below that released by nuclear plants in their normal operations around the world.

How Japan plans to release Fukushima water into the ocean

The release, which is expected to take decades to complete, is aimed at making space to begin removing the highly dangerous radioactive fuel and rubble from the wrecked reactors.

Last week Prime Minister Fumio Kishida publicly ate fish from Fukushima in an effort to reassure consumers, as did the U.S. Ambassador to Japan in a show of support.

The government on Monday also beefed up an aid package for the fishing sector following the seafood import ban by China, Japan’s biggest export market for fish.

This picture shows a sign reading “Suspend the sale of all fish products imported from Japan” an area of Japanese restaurants in Beijing on August 27, 2023.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Japan threatened on August 29 to take China to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to seek a reversal of Beijing’s ban on all of its seafood imports after the release of treated radioactive water from the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

Also Read: How Japan plans to release Fukushima water into the ocean

Japan’s Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters that Japan will take “necessary action [on China’s aquatic product ban] under various routes including the WTO framework”.

Filing a WTO complaint might become an option if protesting to China through diplomatic routes is ineffective, Economic Security Minister Sanae Takaichi said separately.

The comments came as Japanese businesses and public facilities continued to receive harassment calls from phone numbers with the +86 Chinese country code, with many reporting callers complaining of the Fukushima water release.

Also Read: What’s happening at Fukushima plant 12 years after meltdown?

Japan’s National Policy Agency has received 225 reports of harassment calls to date, Jiji news reported, and the government said it was seeking help from telecommunications companies to block the calls.

An increasing number of landline phone users are requesting to block foreign numbers, said a spokesperson at NTT Communications, a Nippon Telegraph and Telephone unit. NTT and other phone companies including KDDI and SoftBank Corp are discussing measures following the government’s request.

“It is extremely regrettable and concerning about the large number of harassment calls that have likely come from China,” Trade Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said during a news conference. He said that according to the people of Fukushima some calls were even going to hospitals.

“Human life is at stake now. Please stop the calls immediately,” Mr. Nishimura said.

The Minister said the government is gathering information on the reports of movements to boycott Japanese products in China and would work with business leaders to address the situation.

Beijing:

Japan said Tuesday that harassment being faced by Japanese in China after the release of water from the Fukushima nuclear plant was “extremely regrettable”, confirming that a brick was thrown at the country’s embassy in Beijing.

Last week, China banned all seafood imports from its neighbour as Japan began releasing treated wastewater from the crippled plant in an operation Tokyo and the United Nation’s nuclear watchdog have said is safe.

Since then, Japan has urged its citizens in China to keep a low profile and has increased security around schools and diplomatic missions.

Japan’s foreign minister on Tuesday confirmed media reports that a brick was thrown at its embassy in Beijing and echoed calls from Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Monday to China to take action to calm the situation.

“It is extremely regrettable and worrying,” Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters in Tokyo.

“We would like to urge the Chinese government again to take appropriate measures immediately, such as calling on its citizens to act calmly to prevent the situation from escalating, and to take all possible measures to ensure the safety of Japanese residents and our diplomatic missions in China,” he said.

He added that China should “provide accurate information” about the Fukushima water release “rather than unnecessarily raising people’s concerns by providing information without any scientific basis”.

In Beijing, a spokesperson at the Japanese embassy told AFP that staff were “extremely worried”.

“Some individuals have come to our (embassy) entrance,” the spokesperson said.

“They took these kinds of actions then were led away by armed police.”

Asked what action Beijing would take over the stone-throwing, foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said Monday that China “always protects the safety and legitimate rights and interests of foreigners in China, in accordance with law”.

“We strongly urge the Japanese side to face up to the legitimate concerns of all parties, immediately stop the discharge of nuclear-contaminated water into the sea, fully consult with its neighbours and other stakeholders, and earnestly dispose of nuclear-contaminated water in a responsible manner,” Wang told a regular briefing.

– ‘Don’t speak loudly’ –

On Sunday, Japan’s foreign ministry urged its citizens in China to be “cautious in your speech and behaviour. Do not speak Japanese unnecessarily or too loudly”.

A range of businesses in Japan, from bakeries to an aquarium, have reportedly been subjected to thousands of crank calls that have included abusive and racist language.

Social media users in China have posted recordings and videos of the calls, some of which have attracted tens of thousands of likes.

Japan began releasing more than 500 Olympic swimming pools’ worth of diluted wastewater from Fukushima into the Pacific on Thursday, 12 years after a tsunami knocked out three reactors in one of the world’s worst atomic accidents.

All radioactive elements have been filtered out except for tritium, levels of which are within safe limits and below that released by nuclear power stations in their normal operation — including in China, plant operator TEPCO says.

Test results from seawater and fish samples near the plant since the start of the discharge — which will take decades to complete — have confirmed this, according to Japanese authorities.

 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)