The Fukushima Dai-Ichi Nuclear Power Plant.
Photographer: Toru Hanai / Bloomberg
Photographer: Toru Hanai / Bloomberg
China is increasing pressure on Japan’s plan to discharge purified water from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant into the ocean and is calling on government officials to drink the liquid to prove its safety.
“Japanese politicians said that treated wastewater is ‘harmless’, why don’t they drink, cook and wash their clothes with the water first?” Zhao Lijian, a spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry, said on Twitter on Thursday. When Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso, who was questioned about the comments on Friday, sidestepped questions and said water pollution levels in Fukushima are below international guidelines.
Tokyo’s plan to discharge its wastewater into the Pacific, announced Tuesday, has been brutal criticized by China, Taiwan, South Korea and North Korea.
Aso said the water seemed safe enough to drink. The United States Department of State indicated that the plan appears to meet global discharge standards. The International Atomic Energy Agency supported the planned releases, which were not due to start for two years and are expected to last for decades.
Storage tanks with polluted water are in the TEPCO nuclear power plant in Fukushima Dai-ichi in 2017.
Photographer: Tomohiro Ohsumi / Bloomberg
The United States Food & Drug Administration enforces According to the prefecture’s website, there are import restrictions on some foods from Fukushima due to possible radioactive contamination.
There have been long calls to prove the safety of the treated groundwater flowing through the destroyed Fukushima plant. A ruling party official drank a glass of water from the reactor building of the Fukushima Dai-Ichi facility in 2011 in an effort to support the government’s claims that the clean-up efforts were progressing.
– With the help of Colum Murphy and Yuko Takeo