Photo/Illutration Numerous tanks holding radioactive water fill the grounds of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

A rift is widening between the government and fishermen over a planned fund to protect fisheries from financial damage after treated but still radioactive water is released from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

At an April 12 news conference, industry minister Koichi Hagiuda said the government is set to “take effective measures to curb expected reputational damage to fisheries products while hearing input from the fisheries industry.”

Tokyo Electric Power Co., operator of the plant, aims to start releasing the water next spring.

The government announced last year that it would establish a fund worth about 30 billion yen ($239 million) to support fishermen who would be adversely affected by public perception on their seafood products due to releasing the treated water into the sea.

The fund is expected to be used to preserve seafood that suffers from price drops while it is in a frozen state and address other related issues.

But Hiroshi Kishi, chairman of the Federation of Japan Fisheries Cooperatives, which is staunchly opposed to the release of the water, said he and other officials of the federation are expecting additional assistance on top of that.

On April 5, Kishi met Hagiuda to obtain a written reply to the federation’s five-point inquiry submitted a year ago.

The inquiry included a question over how the government would address the issue of reputational damage to fisheries products from Fukushima Prefecture and elsewhere in the country.

The government’s reply stated that “a supersize fund will be established to ensure that fishermen across the country can continue to sustain the fisheries industry with a sense of security.”

After the meeting, Kishi called the 30-billion-yen fund and the creation of a supersize fund that was mentioned in the written reply “two separate matters,” signaling that he expects an additional support program to be set up for fishermen.

He said the large fund was listed as a measure to sustain the fishing business, rather than as a measure to address reputational damage.

But at the April 12 news conference, Hagiuda suggested that there will not be a second fund in connection with the release of the water.

“The government has already set aside 30 billion yen and we believe that it is fairly large,” he said.

An official in charge of the issue with the industry ministry said that the government has not promised to create an additional fund.

The government of Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga announced the decision in April 2021 to release the water into the sea, saying the step is necessary to rebuild Fukushima Prefecture.

The decision met fierce opposition from local fishermen and the Federation of Japan Fisheries Cooperatives, as the federation’s prefectural chapter was moving toward a full return to fishing, years after the 2011 triple meltdown.

TEPCO plans to begin releasing the water from a location 1 kilometer offshore from the plant by constructing an undersea tunnel for the release.

The water used to cool melted nuclear fuel will be treated to remove radioactive material before it gets discharged.

Still, the equipment used to treat the water cannot eliminate tritium. The utility will dilute the treated water to reduce the concentration of tritium in the water to one-40th of the statutory standards or lower.

It will begin with the construction of the tunnel and other necessary facilities once it gains approval from the Nuclear Regulation Authority.

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