The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog agency has given its approval to Japan’s plan to release thousands of gallons of mildly radioactive wastewater from the wreckage of the Fukushima nuclear plant into the sea.
International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi presented Prime Minister Fumio Kishida with the agency’s final review of the government’s plan Tuesday shortly after his arrival in Tokyo.
Grossi said the plan to release treated radioactive wastewater from Fukushima adhered to global safety standards and “would have a negligible radiological impact on people and the environment” in a written foreward to the report, which was completed after a two-year long review.
Grossi will meet with other Japanese officials involved in the planned release of the contaminated water from Fukushima, and will personally visit the plant Wednesday.
The plant became inoperable on March 11, 2011, when a 9.0-magnitude earthquake triggered a tsunami that swept across northeastern Japan before reaching Fukushima prefecture.
The high waves knocked out the plant’s power supply and cooling systems and led to a meltdown of three reactors, sending massive amounts of radiation into the air and forcing the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of residents, making it the world’s worst nuclear disaster since the 1986 Chernobyl accident.
The plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power, is expected to receive final approval from Japan’s nuclear regulator to begin releasing the radioactive water sometime this week.
Japan says the radioactive water, which was used to cool the nuclear fuel rods at Fukushima after the disaster, has been diluted to levels well below international standards, and will be slowly released into the ocean over several decades.
But the plan has drawn opposition from both local fishermen and neighboring China and South Korea, because of concerns over possible contamination of fishing waters and beaches. Grossi will travel to South Korea, as well as New Zealand and the Cook Islands, after his visit to Japan to ease concerns about the plan.
Some information for this report came from Reuters.
