Japan: China has reportedly banned seafood imports from Japan after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant released treated nuclear water into the Pacific Ocean. China had warned that it would block all such imports before the release.
Meanwhile, Japan says the water is safe, and many scientists support it. The UN’s nuclear watchdog has also approved the plan, as per the statement.
There are more than a million tonnes of water stored at the nuclear plant, and it will be released in the next 30 years.
China is the biggest seafood buyer in Japan. People in Japan and neighbouring countries are outraged by this water release. The fishermen are concerned that their industry will be destroyed.
The Chinese government criticised the release as “extremely selfish and irresponsible.”
“The ocean is the common property of all humanity, and forcibly starting the discharge of Fukushima’s nuclear wastewater into the ocean is an extremely selfish and irresponsible act that ignores international public interests,” Beijing’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
It warned against a possible “man-made secondary disaster to the local people and the whole world” after the initial Fukushima disaster in 2011.
“By dumping the water into the ocean, Japan is spreading the risks to the rest of the world and passing an open wound onto the future generations of humanity,” the ministry remarked.
Fukushima Daiichi was struck by a massive tsunami in March 2011. Three nuclear reactors were melted down by the phenomenon. The water became contaminated after it was used to cool three nuclear reactors. The tsunami disrupted the plant’s backup electricity. This led to the evacuation of 160,000 people. This incident is considered the worst nuclear accident after Chernobyl.
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