China has banned all seafood from Japan for releasing treated radioactive wastewater into the Pacific Ocean
China has said it is banning all seafood from Japan for releasing the treated radioactive wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean.
Terming the move as a “selfish and irresponsible act”, China’s Customs Department said it would stop importing all aquatic products from Japan. Mainland China and Hong Kong are Japan’s top 2 biggest export markets for seafood.
China said that banning seafood from Japan aims to prevent the risk of radioactive contamination of food safety caused by Japan’s Fukushima nuclear-contaminated water discharge and protect the health of Chinese consumers. However, Japan claims that discharging the treated water is safe and urgently needed to free up space at the crippled nuclear power plant.
As per the State-owned electricity firm – Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the discharge began at 1:00 p.m. local time on Thursday, August 24, 2023. The treated radioactive wastewater will be highly diluted and released slowly over decades. TEPCO said it will discharge only around 200 or 210 cubic meters of treated wastewater on Day 1. from Friday, i.e., August 25, 2023, it plans to continuously release 456 cubic meters of treated wastewater over 24 hours and a total of 7,800 cubic meters over 17 days.
TEPCO said that it would immediately suspend the operation and investigate the issue if abnormalities are detected in the discharge equipment or the dilution levels of the treated wastewater. It will send a boat into the harbour to collect samples to monitor and ensure the discharged treated wastewater meets international safety standards.
Japan’s devastating 2011 earthquake and tsunami caused water within the Fukushima nuclear plant to be contaminated with highly radioactive material. Since then, new water has been pumped in to cool fuel debris in the reactors, while ground and rainwater have leaked in, creating more radioactive wastewater.
The plan to release the water has been in the works for years, with authorities warning in 2019 that space was running out to store the material and they had no other option but to release it in a treated and highly diluted form.
The United Nations (U.N.) Nuclear watchdog – The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has already said that the discharged water has no side effects. The IAEA has staff stationed in a newly-opened Fukushima Office and will monitor the situation for years.
The United States (U.S.) and Taiwan have agreed that the amount of tritium being released should have minimal impact. However, China and the Pacific Islands have been vocal in their opposition, arguing the release could have broad regional and international impact and potentially threaten human health and the marine environment.
Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry has warned that the wastewater release would pass on the risks to the whole world and extend the pain to future generations of humankind.
