Environmental protection groups are demonstrating in several countries against the pumping of cooling water from the Japanese nuclear ruins in Fukushima into the Pacific. The Pacific Forum is also still debating it.
In several countries in the South Pacific, people have protested against the beginning of the discharge of treated cooling water from the Japanese nuclear reactor Fukushima into the sea.
Environmental protection groups organized demonstrations in front of Japan’s diplomatic missions in the New Zealand cities of Auckland and Wellington and in the capital of the island state of Fiji, Suva.
Much criticism of Japan’s approach
Protests had also accompanied the start of the dumping in Japan itself. The operating company Tepco pumped a first batch of filtered and diluted cooling water into a tunnel in the Pacific yesterday.
Several core meltdowns occurred in the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on March 11, 2011 as a result of a severe earthquake and massive tsunami. Since then, the destroyed reactors have had to be cooled with water. In the meantime, 1.34 million tons of cooling water have collected there.
Harsh criticism of the approach also came from China. In a statement, the Foreign Ministry in Beijing described Japan as a “polluter of the global marine environment”.
Pacific Forum at odds
The Pacific Islands Forum, a group of 18 countries in the region, has so far been unable to find a common position on this. While Palau, Fiji and Papua New Guinea, among others, are officially with Japan, Vanuatu and Tuvalu are against it. The group’s secretary-general, Henry Puna, said the issue was “top priority.”
The forum has always urged Japan to comment on any potential dangers of the dumping, and relies on it not to do so unless it is safe, Puna said. There will be further meetings of the forum on this.
Source: Stern
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