The World Briefly

July 07, 2023

Stamp of Approval

Japan

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Japan will soon start releasing more than one million tons of treated radioactive water after the United Nations’ nuclear safety watchdog gave the country its approval this week, Axios reported.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) conducted a review and found that Japan’s plan to release water stored at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station complies with international safety standards.

The approval comes 12 years after a devastating sub-sea earthquake that unleashed a powerful tsunami on the country and the power plant that led to one of the world’s worst nuclear disasters.

The catastrophe caused nuclear meltdowns, and Japanese officials used water to cool the reactors. But the contaminated water has been stored on-site for more than a decade.

In 2021, the Japanese government announced plans to release the water, saying that it had been treated to remove almost all its radioactive components, except for tritium – which cannot be easily separated from water.

In its assessment this week, the IAEA said the “discharges of the treated water would have a negligible radiological impact to people and the environment.”

Despite the approval, scientists, fishermen, and neighboring nations have expressed concern about the risk of contamination, the New York Times added.

The water will undergo dilution prior to its discharge in order to reduce the tritium content, which is utilized for generating luminescence, to levels that comply with regulatory standards.

The director-general of the IAEA, Rafael Mariano Grossi added that the agency will assess the safety of the operation throughout its duration, which is expected to span several decades.

This story originally appeared in the July 07, 2023 newsletter, Community Policing.