Japan’s agriculture minister on Thursday referred to the Fukushima nuke wastewater launched into the ocean as “contaminated water” as an alternative of the time period “treated water” insisted by the Japanese authorities, triggering criticism from Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
“We exchanged information on the subsequent evaluation of contaminated water,” Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Tetsuro Nomura advised reporters after his assembly with Kishida on the prime minister’s official residence.
Nomura’s alternative of wording clearly angered the prime minister, who acknowledged that he discovered the assertion “regrettable” and has instructed an apology and withdrawal of the assertion, in keeping with native media shops.
Hit by a large earthquake and tsunami in 2011, the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant suffered core meltdowns that launched radiation, leading to a level-7 nuclear accident, the very best on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale.
The plant has been producing a large quantity of water tainted with radioactive substances, and the discharge is deliberate to proceed for over 30 years, in keeping with its operator Tokyo Electric Power Company.
As the Japanese authorities does every little thing attainable to publicize the security of radioactive water, the time period “treated water” is mostly used to consult with “nuclear-contaminated water,” which is meant to downplay its air pollution traits and potential hazards.
(Cover: Fishing boats at Tsurushihama Fishing Port, Shinchi-machi of Fukushima Prefecture, some 60 km north of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant on August 21, 2023. /CFP)
Source: CGTN