Japanese expert: release of radioactive water sacrifices public interests

A Japanese scholar criticized the Japanese government for sacrificing the interests of marine workers in its stubborn insistence of releasing the nuclear-contaminated wastewater into the sea.

The Japanese government and Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) unilaterally launched the discharge of Fukushima nuclear wastewater into the sea from August 24, which aroused strong opposition at home and abroad.

"There were various options, including geological disposal, land burial and atmospheric release as steam. However, the Japanese government rejected all these options and made the decision to release the nuclear-contaminated water into the ocean," said Kumpei Hayashi, associate professor at the Fukushima University.

He said that the government chose to target the most disadvantaged, as people engaged in marine-related work are underprivileged in Japan.

The discharge process would last for at least 30 years. Hayashi has raised concerns over the rationale behind such a statement, pointing out the lack of supervisory organizations overseeing the process.

"What will happen after 10 years, after 20 years and, ultimately, after 30 years?"

Currently, there were already 1.3 million tonnes of nuclear-contaminated water stored in tanks, and the volume continues to increase every day.

"The TEPCO said it will try to reduce the daily increase. However, the methods and pace at which it will achieve this remain unclear," he said.

Apart from that, a portion of the 1.3 million tonnes of nuclear-contaminated water has to go through secondary treatment. "Will this process proceed smoothly?" he asked.

"All of these should be carefully investigated. If only the government is responsible for supervising the TEPCO in the future, it would be quite likely that they may adopt a lax approach and neglect their duties," said Hayashi.

Protests aroused among Japanese people

A major Japanese civic group, the National Liaison Council against the Discharge of Polluted Water from Nuclear Power Plants, has filed a formal complaint against Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and TEPCO president Tomoaki Kobayakawa over their discharge decision.

Kaoru Iwata, co-representative of the group, told China Media Group in an interview that he was deeply shocked after hearing the government's decision to discharged the radioactive wastewater into the ocean.

"As Japanese people, we also feel deeply ashamed," said Iwata, adding that the government and TEPCO must take responsibility.

Amidst Japanese protesters, workers from the fishing industry voiced their disappointment and anger towards the Japanese government and TEPCO for betraying their commitments and discharging radioactive water into the ocean.

"In August 2015, the government promised the fishermen that the nuclear-contaminated water would not be discharged into the sea without the permission of people concerned, but now they have initiated the water discharge recklessly," said a protester.

Many protesters condemned the decision to discharge the nuclear-contaminated water into the ocean, asserting that it is unequivocally wrong, and urged the Japanese government to halt the process and explore safer solutions.

"I will never forgive this … It is disappointing that our country has done such a thing. We should stop the discharge immediately and implement solidification with mortar as an alternative," said a protester.

The protester added that there is enough storage space, so the contaminated water should be stored rather than discharged into the sea.