Tokyo, 25 August, /AJMEDIA/
Japan’s Environment Ministry started collecting seawater samples around the wrecked Fukushima Daiichi power plant Friday, a day after the release of treated radioactive water into the sea commenced despite concern among local fishermen and some neighboring countries.
Samples of seawater were collected off Fukushima Prefecture to measure the level of tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen that is said to pose little risk to human health and the environment.
The plant’s operator Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. began its own monitoring of seawater Thursday, with the result of its analysis expected to be released later Friday.
TEPCO began discharging the water, which has been treated and stored in tanks after cooling melted nuclear fuel at the plant, at around 1 p.m. Thursday.
The water is being released via an underwater tunnel 1 kilometer off the coastal plant after most radionuclides are removed and the remaining tritium is diluted to one-40th of the concentration permitted under Japanese safety standards.
Apparently with China in mind, industry minister Yasutoshi Nishimura told a press conference, “We will publicly disclose relevant data with great transparency and continue to seek the immediate removal of import restrictions (on Japanese products) not based on scientific evidence.”
China suspended imports of all seafood products from Japan on Thursday following the start of the discharge.
Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Nishimura, who oversees the utility sector, said the government had requested that China immediately lift the latest import restrictions at a trade ministers’ meeting of the Group of 20 countries in India being held on Thursday and Friday.