Published August 30, 2023
Updated August 30, 2023 6park.com
STOCKHOLM — The tritium concentration in wastewater being released from Japan's stricken Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear plant is under expected levels and poses no risk to the population, the head of the United Nations (UN) atomic watchdog said on Tuesday (Aug 29). 6park.com
"So far we have been able to confirm that the first releases of these waters do not contain any radionuclide at levels that would be harmful," Mr Rafael Grossi told AFP during a visit to Stockholm. 6park.com
Twelve years after one of the world's worst nuclear accidents, Japan began releasing wastewater into the Pacific Ocean last week, as it gradually discharges around 540 Olympic swimming pools' worth of water over several decades. 6park.com
"The beginning has been according to what we were expecting... but we will continue (to monitor)... until the last drop is released," Mr Grossi said. 6park.com
The IAEA said on Aug 24 that its independent analysis of the tritium concentration in the diluted water being discharged was "far below the operational limit of 1,500 becquerels per litre".
That limit was in turn much lower than the Japanese national safety standard. 6park.com
Japan has repeatedly insisted the wastewater will be harmless, but the move has elicited fears among local fishermen and sparked anger in China, which has suspended its seafood imports from Japan.