On Thursday, the operator of the Fukushima nuclear plant reported that Japan has started discharging a second batch of the facility’s treated effluent.
As reported by AFP, the water leak started around 10:18 am (0118 GMT).
This release comes after the first one on August 24, when Japan started discharging some of the 1.34 million tonnes of wastewater that had accumulated since a tsunami damaged the plant in 2011.
While China has frequently criticized the release and barred all imports of Japanese seafood, Japan has maintained that the treated water poses no health hazards, a claim that is supported by the UN’s nuclear watchdog.
The second phase is anticipated to release around 7,800 tonnes of water, similar to the original release that finished on September 11.
According to TEPCO, all radioactive elements have been removed from the wastewater with the exception of tritium, which is present at safe levels.
“It has been confirmed that the first release has been conducted as planned and in a safe manner,” government spokesman Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters Thursday, stressing no abnormalities had been detected.
The government will “continue to communicate, both domestically and internationally, results of monitoring data in a highly transparent manner,” Matsuno said.
Japan will also urge China to “immediately scrap import bans on Japanese food, and act based on scientific justifications”, he added.
Russia, which has frosty relations with Japan, is reportedly considering following suit on the seafood ban.
China has accused Japan of using the ocean like a “sewer”, an assertion echoed at the UN last week by Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare of the Solomon Islands, who has developed close ties with Beijing.
Following the initial release, numerous Japanese businesses reported being flooded with calls from Chinese numbers, prompting Tokyo to urge Beijing to “ensure the safety of Japanese residents in China”.
The full release, which is expected to take decades to complete, is aimed at making space to eventually begin removing highly dangerous radioactive fuel and rubble from the plant’s wrecked reactors.
