“Neighboring countries insist on discharge plans without consideration for their own citizens.”
Accusations of “the Japanese government being paralyzed”… “Monitoring is unreliable”
Chinese state media strongly criticized Japan for its second discharge of contaminated water (treated water, as the Japanese government calls it), calling Japan a “rogue country.”
On the 4th, the day before the release, China’s state-run Global Times published an article titled ‘Japan, like a rogue country, releases nuclear waste without consideration for its neighbors or its own citizens.’ The media criticized Japan for insisting on its discharge plan despite widespread opposition at home and abroad.
“We expect serious damage and enormous damage to Japan’s fishing industry,” Ainar Tangen, a senior researcher at the Taihe Institute, a Beijing-based think tank, told the outlet. “It appears that reasonable alternatives cannot be sought,” he pointed out.
In response to a question from the Global Times asking about the role other countries can play in the discharge schedule of contaminated water from nuclear power plants scheduled for the next 30 to 40 years, he said, “There is nothing we can do other than monitoring,” and added, “Japan will carry out this and submit it to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).” “Monitoring that is spoon-fed is unreliable,” he emphasized.
He then pointed out, “Considering Tokyo Electric Power Company’s history of lying, what are the odds that they are telling the truth now?”
“They seem to think that if they keep releasing (contaminated water) for the next 30 years, people will get used to it and won’t complain,” he said.
Japan’s Tokyo Electric Power Company began the second discharge of contaminated water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant as scheduled on the morning of the 5th.
As with the first release conducted in August and September, approximately 7,800 tons of contaminated water containing the radioactive tritium (tritium) will be diluted with a large amount of seawater and released through an undersea tunnel about 1km off the coast of the nuclear power plant over a period of 17 days.
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.