UN to review Japan’s plan to release Fukushima water into Pacific
GuardianAPR 2022
China, South Korea, and several Pacific Island nations are right to be outraged at this planned release. This toxic water will impact the fishing industry and, more importantly, the marine environment as a whole. Japan should not be allowed to make this decision in isolation, and nothing short of full consultation and agreement between all the countries involved should be required to move forward. This grossly negligent and unfortunate plan cannot be authorized until everyone has had their voices heard.
Japan has painstakingly planned the slow release of treated water from Fukushima over a 30-year period. Experts remain positive in their belief that contamination of the marine environment will be negligible when compared to the risk of another one-two punch from earthquake and tsunami to the onsite storage tanks. TEPCO has provided assurance that this measure is safe and that the impact will be no more significant than the marine releases made annually by both the Heysham and Sellafield nuclear power plants in the United Kingdom.