Polluting the Pacific

Tokyo must rethink release of radioactive water

Japan and Germany have a history of amicable relations and have usually supported each other on international issues. But things were different last Sunday.

At a news conference after the G7 environment ministers’ meeting, Japan tried to elicit unanimous support from other participants for its planned release of radioactive water into the sea. Germany quashed such hopes.

German Environment Minister Steffi Lemke made it clear she “cannot welcome the release of the treated water.” Later, Japanese Trade and Industry Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura had to say he was “slightly wrong.”

We feel relieved that Germany, undoubtedly the most qualified member of G7 to put the brakes on Japan’s unscrupulous attempt, did so. Despite the internal controversy, the European country shut down its last nuclear plant a day earlier. Japan will likely take another shot at the G7 summit next month before releasing radioactive water in a few months.

But it must not. No developed country with a conscience should do that.

Tokyo says it will filter out radioactive substances before dumping the water from the Fukushima Daiichi Plant into the sea and water down the rest, such as tritium. However, many foreign experts doubt the credibility and consistency of data supplied by the Japanese government and the Tokyo Electric Power Co. Japan is highly reluctant to share even such limited data.

The Japanese government cites support from the U.S. government and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). However, Washington is ill-positioned to raise issues with other countries contaminating oceans. The U.S. had long used some Pacific islands as sites to test atomic bombs. The IAEA is basically a pro-atomic-energy organization. Japan is its third-largest financial contributor after the U.S. and China. A Japanese official had headed it for nearly a decade until two years ago.

Most of all, there are alternatives to dumping radioactive water into the sea, including storing it on land or evaporating it. The world’s third-largest economy just chose the cheapest way. It then tries to convince others ? and itself ? in vain that there is no harm. Tokyo says tritium is all but harmless if diluted to one hundred thousandths. Yet, scientists refute that the absolute amount in the sea remains the same and it is harmful if it enters the human body. Tokyo must ask itself which is more important, money or people and the environment.

The Yoon Suk Yeol government’s position on this issue remains lukewarm at best. It reiterates Japan’s radioactive water discharge plan must ensure safety on a “scientific and objective” level, stressing transparency in “all processes of the discharge.” Seoul seems to take the discharge for granted ? if unconsciously.

Compare this with China. “The disposal of nuclear-contaminated water is by no means Japan’s private matter,” a director-general of the Chinese foreign ministry said about a month ago. He added that it is driven by Japan’s selfish interests, and Tokyo has not responded to international concerns and addressed them accordingly. In conclusion, the official said, “The Pacific Ocean is not Japan’s sewer for discharging its nuclear-contaminated water.”

The Pacific Islands Forum also called for shelving the release. A group of 18 Pacific islands expressed the position that the nuclear wastewater be released “only when we have enough data and information to make a full assessment of impacts to human health and environment.”

According to Japanese media, Yoon told Japanese officials he would try to persuade Koreans on this issue, even if it takes some time during his visit to Japan on March 16-17. After the Korean media took issue with the report, the presidential office vowed not to import Japanese fisheries products caught near Fukushima. However, Tokyo will dispute that it is “unscientific and unobjective” to ban fisheries imports while approving the release of radioactive water.

Yoon cites national interests in conceding nearly everything to Japan. But there are no national interests that come before the public’s health and safety. Yoon must make this clear when he revisits Tokyo in May.

Source: Yonhap News Agency