[Press Release for Immediate Release]

Peoples' Action to Stop Dumping of Fukushima Daiichi Radioactive Water

IAEA's report that is narrow and limited in verification cannot justify radioactively contaminated water dumping at sea.

As expected, the IAEA announced today that the dumping of contaminated water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant at sea meets safety standards. But we can't trust it. This is because the IAEA turned out to have ONLY REVIEWED THE DUMPING of CONTAMINATED WATER at SEA RATHER THAN LOOKING FOR a SAFER ALTERNATIVE. In other words, the IAEA states in the report that it is LIMITED to REVIEWING JAPAN’s REQUEST to “review the application of relevant international safety standards for sea discharge of ALPS-treated water”. IAEA verification that does not consider alternatives such as on-land storage and solidification that have been proposed so far is narrow and unacceptable.

The IAEA DID NOT EVALUATE ‘JUSTIFICATION’ as a fundamental principle of International Standards for Radiological Protection. ‘Justification’ is the principle that any decision to change the radiation exposure situation should do better than harm. The IAEA said, “the report did not include an evaluation of the details of the justification process followed by the Japanese government,” and it concluded “the legitimacy of the final choice of ALPS treated water management method is highly relevant to many stakeholders and requires clarification by the Japanese government.” The IAEA shied away from its responsibility, saying, “The responsibility to justify the discharge of contaminated water lies with the Japanese government.”

The IAEA also DID NOT PROPERLY EVALUATE the part where the dumping of contaminated water could cause damage across borders. The report only concluded that "according to the results of the ocean dispersion model used by Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the radioactivity concentration in international waters is not affected by the discharge of ALPS-treated water into the sea, so the cross-border effect is negligible." ONLY BASED ON an ASSESSMENT conducted BY TEPCO, the IAEA concluded that there was no cross-border impact.

The IAEA ignored the impact of contaminated water discharged immediately after the Fukushima accident and without initial purification. Even though radioactive material far exceeded the standard was already released because of this, the IAEA treated the current ocean dumping of contaminated water as if it were discharged from a normally operating nuclear power plant and evaluated it. Considering that the accident has already caused a large amount of radioactive contamination, TEPCO should be more strictly restricted from dumping pollutants, but it seems that TEPCO only gave an indulgence without asking any responsibility.

The IAEA verification, which decided from the beginning that the polluted water was dumped at sea, and proceeded without considering the principles set by itself, cannot win the trust and consent of not only Korea but also the international community. The Japanese government and TEPCO should not pollute the sea any more in that they have polluted an incomparably greater amount than the normal operation process. Moreover, even though there are alternatives other than ocean dumping, they have not been reviewed at all. Tokyo Electric Power and the Japanese government should give up irresponsible ocean dumping.

 July 04, 2023

 Peoples' Action to Stop Dumping of Fukushima Daiichi Radioactive Water