AP Articles - Fukushima 12 Years Later - Food Safe Waste Water OK to Dump in Ocean

Here are some AP articles about the Fukushima disaster 12 years out. EU lifts Japanese food import restrictions and U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency chief OKs Japanese plan to release Fukushima wastewater into the Pacific Ocean. South Koreans among others worry about the risks of wastewater release.

EU, Japan celebrate close cooperation with end of EU food restrictions in wake of Fukushima disaster

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union and Japan celebrated their close cooperation with Thursday’s announcement that the 27-nation bloc will lift the food import restrictions it had imposed in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida held a short summit with EU leaders Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel, further cementing a diplomatic unity that was only reinforced since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Link to 1st Article

International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Mariano Grossi observed where the treated water will be sent through a pipeline to a coastal facility, where it will be highly diluted with seawater and receive a final test sampling. It will then be released 1 kilometer (1,000 yards) offshore through an undersea tunnel. “I was satisfied with what I saw,” Grossi said after his tour of equipment at the plant for the planned discharge, which Japan hopes to begin this summer. “I don’t see any pending issues.”

Link to 2nd Article

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean opposition lawmakers sharply criticized the head of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog on Sunday for its approval of Japanese plans to release treated wastewater from the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant.

. . . The IAEA last week approved the Japanese discharge plans, saying the process would meet international safety standards and pose negligible environmental and health impacts. South Korea’s government has also endorsed the safety of the Japanese plans.

In his meeting with members of the liberal Democratic Party, which controls a majority in South Korea’s parliament, Grossi said the IAEA’s review of the Japanese plans was based on “transparent” and ”scientific” research. He acknowledged concerns over how the Japanese plans would play out in reality and said the IAEA would establish a permanent office in Fukushima to closely monitor how the discharge process is implemented over the next three decades.

Link to 3rd Article

Well then, all it took was 12 years after the worst nuclear disaster the planet has ever seen for things to get back to normal. An out-of-control nuclear meltdown has gone down into the local water table and all they can do is pour more water over it, treat it somehow, then dilute it with seawater and flush it out to sea. Not a problem, they can even sell their food to the EU now that everything is OK and South Korea is on board too, well, the government at least.

There are a number of countries against this wastewater plan. Those include China and North Korea, but of course, they would.

I'm sure glad they figured out how to take care of that in such a safe CO2 neutral manner. No climate change worries about that and Japanese seafood like sushi is back on the menu. It's great to be alive and have "the science" to take care of all the world's problems until there's not a worry in the world.

a reply to: MichiganSwampBuck

Don't worry, be happy, trust the Science!

It's all safe!

What was the half life, if it's good after 12 years?

I'm not super intelligent like, but come on.......

Ridiculous…why not simply make a concrete framed lake and block it off with a fence and many warning signs? No idea how dangerous it is in the ocean but the point is it IS dangerous and we don’t have ever replenishing oceans to keep making mistakes in. This is our problem, not 50% of life on earth’s problem.

I have followed the Fukushima disaster from day one, with friends family thinking I'm a bit off for refusing to allow my cat to eat any food made with fish.

In the beginning it was said that there was no way to deal with the radioactivity; it would be harmful for generations. Somewhere along the line they came up with a magic elixir to neutralize it, but I haven't read what that is. Just add more water?

I'm still not feeding my cat anything that comes from the sea.

Yeah, sure. Lemme see those board members share a refreshing carafe.

Actually if you want to get the truth and what's actually going on politically here all you have to do is interview the local fishermen and and their family and their child.ren and how they feel for the future of the fishing industry within a 50 km area of the Fukushima nuclear power plant.
12 years have made a lot of dent in the people's lives as far as aging and deaths you have to realize many fishermen 12 years ago were in their 70s and many of their kids had left the area for the bigger cities and so it's kind of I'm not going to say it's dying industry yet but it's obviously the impact of this fisherman in the area I definitely made the decision a lot easier.
Right now I'm touring the island of shikoku and I actually see the aging population and the all the abandoned the houses and along the highway the abandoned mom and pop stores and restaurants and also I saw in abandoned School and the population is just disappearing very quickly. Also the import of foreign labor is more dominant and more visual these days and I was really surprised and taken by the amount of foreigners in one city that is working in the manufacturing sector I don't know about the fishing sector because it's probably more dominant and the Hiroshima area for the oyster the harvesting.
Anyway I really feel sorry for the people along the coast up there and Fukushima that depend on livelihood for fishing.

a reply to: MichiganSwampBuck

I bet in the UK now we have th Pacific Trade Agreement with them we will have to take their produce. Radiation, after twelve years, when some of that stuff has a half life of thousanfs of years? I don't trust any of it. Again we will be given no choice and no labels to inform us about what we are consuming.