Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

China Urges Japan Not to Dump Nuclear Waste into Sea


Wed 18 May 2022 | 12:30 PM
Israa Farhan

China’s Defense Ministry urged Japan to revoke its decision of dumping nuclear waste into the sea and stop all preparatory work.

On Tuesday during a press briefing, Defense Ministry’s Spokesperson Wang Wenbin said in response to the recent move by Japan’s Tokyo Electric Power Company to start undersea excavation work 1 km off the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The excavation work is in preparation for constructing an undersea tunnel to release the contaminated water.

The Chinese spokesperson said that the littoral countries of the Pacific Ocean including China are concerned with Tokyo’s decision and strongly oppose such practices.

He explained that regardless of the concern from the international community, the company has gone back on its earlier promise to never release the water unless the decision gets public support, and forcibly pushed through relevant construction.

“Such an attempt to result in a fait accompli is irresponsible. The Japanese government should immediately put a hold on it,” he added.

Wang noted that so far, the Japanese government has been unable to offer a thorough and convincing explanation on issues ranging from the legitimacy of the ocean discharge option to the reliability of relevant data, the efficacy of the treatment system, and the uncertainty of environmental impact.

"We once again urge Japan to attach great importance to the legitimate and reasonable concerns of the international community and people in Japan, revoke the wrong decision to dump the nuclear-contaminated water into the sea, stop proceeding with the preparatory work, and earnestly implement its due international obligations," Wang added.