World concerned over disposal plan, expert says

ISTANBUL — The Japanese government's announcement that nuclear-contaminated wastewater from the Fukushima power plant will be dumped into the sea has caused concern across the world, a Turkish expert on the Asia-Pacific region says.

"That is not something that will harm only Japan or the surrounding environment, but it is an action that concerns the whole world," said Merthan Dundar, director of Ankara University's Asia-Pacific Studies Application and Research Center.

The Japanese government said in January that it would release radioactive wastewater from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean in spring or summer this year.

The spillage of contaminated material could largely affect fisheries and marine life, Dundar said.

"In the globalized world, people eat fish caught in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. It seems that this will create a problem for all humanity."

Although some experts said the water would be cleaned by the Advanced Liquid Processing System, Dundar is especially worried that some substances, such as tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen present in the Fukushima wastewater, would decay easily.

The International Atomic Energy Agency sent a technical task force to Japan in January to review the disposal plan, and a report is due to be published within three months. However, the Japanese government unilaterally announced the disposal plan before the visit of the IAEA's technical task force.

"Such willful behavior cannot but put a question mark over Japan's respect for the authority of the IAEA and its task force," Mao Ning, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, said last month. "Is Japan determined to proceed with its unilateral discharge plan regardless of the outcome of the assessment?"

Dundar also expressed concern over the period of the disposal process. "So they won't drain all the water in two years. It will be gradually released to this sea in 30 to 40 years. I have to say that I am frankly worried."

Xinhua