Health

IAEA team samples seawater near Fukushima plant for wastewater release

TOKYO, Japan: A team of scientists from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) arrived in Fukushima this week to conduct an annual monitoring and sampling mission to ensure the safety of the treated radioactive wastewater being released into the sea, officials said.

Japan began releasing the wastewater from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in August 2023. The plant suffered severe damage during the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, leading to meltdowns in three reactors and a significant accumulation of radioactive water.

China has protested the discharge and imposed a ban on imports of Japanese seafood, negatively affecting Japanese exporters.

The IAEA team will collect samples from the Fukushima plant, nearby coastal waters, and a fish market in Iwaki city. They will also visit a national laboratory near Tokyo and meet with Japanese officials to further assess the situation.

In late September, Japan and China reached an agreement to ease China’s seafood ban, which included allowing Beijing to participate in monitoring the wastewater discharges through the IAEA framework. However, officials noted that the current IAEA mission, which involves experts from China, is not directly related to this recent deal.

Japan maintains that the discharge complies with international safety standards and is closely monitored by the IAEA. It has criticized China’s seafood ban as unscientific and called for its immediate lifting.

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