SEOUL (TIP): Japan‘s plan to release treated water from the Fukushima nuclear plant would have “negligible consequences” for South Korea, Seoul said on July 7 as it tries to assuage rising public concern.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) this week gave the green light for a decades-long project to discharge accumulated water from the plant, which was devastated by an earthquake and a tsunami that hit the eastern coast of Japan in 2011.
But the plan has encountered widespread public opposition and protests in South Korea, and even panic-buying of salt based on fears that the Fukushima water would pollute the ocean and the salt sourced from seawater.
South Korea conducted its own separate review of Tokyo’s plan, which found Japan will meet or exceed key international standards, policy coordination minister Bang Moon-kyu told reporters at a press conference Friday. The study, which focused on whether the discharge would affect South Korean waters, found it would have “negligible consequences”, the minister said. It would take up to 10 years for the treated water released from Fukushima into the Pacific Ocean to circulate back near the Korean peninsula, Bang said. (AFP)