Japan protests Russia’s restrictions on marine imports after Fukushima spill

2023-10-17 07:02:39

Japan protested today against Russia’s decision to temporarily restrict imports of Japanese fish and seafood, as China had already done, alleging risks of radioactive contamination after the start of the dumping of contaminated and treated water from the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant.

“It is extremely regrettable and goes against international trade. This unilateral decision, which is not based on scientific reasons, is not acceptable,” said Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, Yasutoshi Nishimura, in statements to the media today.

The Japanese Foreign Ministry also condemned this decision and He said that “the Japanese side has responded in good faith and sincerely based on the concerns of the Russian sideso the recent decision has been unilateral,” as they noted in a statement this Monday.

In the text, Japan points out that the Russian decision is “very unfortunate” and that they will continue, for their part, calling for the elimination of the measure, while requesting “actions that are based on scientific evidence.”

The Japanese response comes after Russia joined the restrictions imposed by China the day before “until the safety of the products is completely confirmed.”

Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), responsible for the plant, carried out a first phase of the discharge into the Pacific between August 24 and September 11 of 7,788 cubic meters of the processed liquidwith a tritium volume of approximately 1.1 billion becquerels, according to data provided by the energy company.

Millions of tons of contaminated water have been generated in the plant facilities, either by the cooling work of the damaged reactors and the fuel melted in the 2011 atomic accident, or by the leaks of rainwater in them. over the years.

This water is treated through a complex filtering system that removes most of the harmful radioactive elementsminus tritium (a nuclear isotope present in nature itself), before being stored in tanks to be dumped.