the government maintains the vagueness on the date of the discharge of the water from the plant

2023-08-20 15:35:36

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is reputed to be of a cautious nature. And even more when it comes to the Fukushima nuclear power plant, the 2011 accident of which still traumatizes the spirits in the archipelago. Barely returned from his two-day express trip to the United States, he went on Sunday August 20 to the site of the power plant, 260 kilometers north of Tokyo. Many expected him to announce on this occasion the precise date of the discharge of treated water from the plant into the Pacific Ocean. But he preferred to postpone this announcement.

1.3 million tonnes of water from the plant to be discharged

For several weeks, the local Japanese media had announced that the discharge of these waters from rain, groundwater or injections necessary to cool the cores of nuclear reactors that have melted should begin at the end of August. Tokyo plans to discharge into the Pacific Ocean, over the next few decades, some 1.33 million tonnes of water from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant (northeast of the country), ravaged by the triple disaster (earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident) of March 2011. A process that is all the more sensitive since such an operation has never been carried out in the entire history of nuclear power worldwide.

During a press conference, the Prime Minister explained that he would first meet with local representatives of the fishing industry, whose activity is severely threatened by this project, because it not only worries the Japanese consumers but also neighboring countries (South Korea, China and Pacific countries). In particular, China has banned certain food imports and subjected other products such as vegetables and seafood to strict controls. The South Korean government said it was reassured by the scientific investigations carried out by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The great concern of fishermen

“I must at this stage refrain from commenting on the concrete timing of the release into the ocean, since the decision must be taken after the government as a whole has considered the measures relating to safety and the damage to the reputation (of the fishing industry)”said the Prime Minister, adding that he hoped to meet the fishermen ” tomorrow (this Monday) ». Severely affected by the nuclear disaster since 2011, the fishermen’s cooperatives are opposed to the discharge of water – the quantity of which is equivalent to 500 Olympic swimming pools, believing that it will harm the image of their products, the image of which they have been trying to restore since the disaster.

In July, the project nevertheless cleared the last regulatory hurdle by obtaining the approval of the United Nations nuclear monitoring body (IAEA). The plant operator, Tepco, assures that the dangerous radioactive particles have been filtered out and that the spill is safe. The rejection, of a maximum of 500,000 liters per day, and which will last between twenty and thirty years if all goes well, is only one stage in the complete cleaning of the damaged plant. All that remains is to remove the radioactive debris and nuclear fuels from the three meltdown reactors. The two most dangerous tasks.