THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
October 12, 2023 at 16:26 JST
The Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant (Takeshi Iwashita)
China, a fierce critic of Japan’s discharge of treated water from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, will join the monitoring of radioactive substances in seawater and seafood products in the area.
Japan said on Oct. 11 that such analyses by the International Atomic Energy Agency and a third-party institution formed by China, South Korea and Canada will start on Oct. 16.
Although a third-party analysis of radioactive concentrations in the ocean and marine products has been conducted since 2015, this will be the first time for China to participate in the monitoring.
According to the Secretariat of the Nuclear Regulation Authority, the IAEA and the third-party institution will collect samples of seawater, seabed soil, fish and seaweed for preliminary processing between Oct. 16 and Oct. 23.
They will compile a report over around one year.
It will be the first analysis by the IAEA and others since the water was first released from the nuclear plant in August.
The study will involve the most samples and types of radioactive substances.
The IAEA chose the third-party analysis institution, consisting of the Third Institute of Oceanography of China’s Ministry of Natural Resources, the Korea Institute of Nuclear Security, and Health Canada, a department of the Canadian government.
China imposed a blanket ban on Japanese seafood imports after the water discharge in August.
Although Beijing will join the monitoring, Wang Wenbin, deputy director-general of the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s information department, expressed a negative view of the plan at a regular news conference on Oct. 11.
He said the analyses “are carried out by the IAEA under its bilateral arrangement with Japan and, therefore, fall short of an international monitoring agreement with the full and substantive participation of all stakeholders that will stay effective for the long haul.”
(This article was written by Kai Ichino and Nozomu Hayashi in Beijing.)
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