now despite continued backlash from neighboring countries japan's nuclear regulation authority
last week granted initial approval for the tokyo electric power company to release
wastewater from the fukushima nuclear power plant into the sea saying there are no safety
issues so what happens next and how exactly does this affect neighboring countries to japan
for this we're joined on zoom by sean bernie a senior nuclear specialist at greenpeace
uh mr bernie thank you so much for joining us
hello so first let's start with um your evaluation on the latest decision how do you evaluate it
it's a very bad decision uh it's based upon not understanding the science of radioactivity
the regulator now has given uh initial approval uh they'll be now three weeks from today a
so-called public consultation unfortunately that public consultation will only be limited
to those in japan it's not an international consultation there's no documentation provided for
those outside japan to evaluate it's only in japanese and comments need to be submitted
in japanese and given that this is about dumping nuclear waste into the pacific ocean
which will spread internationally uh polluting the environment internationally it's really an
outrage that the japanese government has decided to basically exclude anyone from outside japan
from evaluating this process so what happens next so um when do they actually plan to actually
release the water so the regulator is expected to give approval uh towards the middle end of july uh
tokyo electric the owner of the plant will start has already started but really will move forward
with building a sub-seabed tunnel for the pipeline that goes into the pacific and the expectation
from from the government side is that discharges would begin early next year i'm not convinced that
will be the case and obviously greenpeace together with civil society in japan and internationally
are challenging the japanese government to try and stop these plans from being implemented
so this actually shows that the japanese government insists that there is no safety
concerns in releasing the wastewater what's their logic and how do environment organizations see
their view so the justification from the japanese government site is that the site is running out of
space every day over 130 tons of contaminated water is accumulated so that's thousands tens
of thousands of tons over the year of additional water and so the argument is we can't stop that
water from being accumulated therefore we have to discharge that's the the justification it's false
there is storage space on the site there's storage space next to the site in the communities nearby
so it's a false premise but the argument is basically we are moving forward with nuclear
decommissioning of the fukushima daiichi site over the next decades that also is a myth the the
problems at the site will not be resolved in the coming decades so actually it's a false narrative
that the japanese government is communicating both to people in japan and internationally
then for some of us who quite don't have much knowledge about this what specific
problems could arise from the release of this wastewater so there's so many problems with this
plan for example the japanese government cannot tell you exactly how much radioactivity is due to
be discharged they've said it will be over three decades 30 years but actually almost certainly
it will be over many many decades well into next century because they're still accumulating
contaminated water so if you don't know what actually you're going to be dumping
into the pacific ocean uh there's no justification for even moving to the stage that they're at now
the problem with the radioactivity is it all behaves differently in the environment so we hear
about radioactive tritium the japanese government says that there's no problem with reductive
tritium not true radioactive tritium a percentage of that bioaccumulates and affects human cells
fish cells plant cells and can cause genetic damage there are many other radioactive materials
strontium iodine plutonium that also will be released into the environment there's been no
serious environmental assessment conducted by the japanese government and the international atomic
energy agency which is overseeing this process is also failing to challenge the japanese government
now i saw a report that you wrote in 2019 saying that korea in particular will be very vulnerable
if japan decides to discharge this radioactive water into the pacific ocean can you explain how
exactly does it affect the korean peninsula well the first thing is the most directly impacted
communities will be in japan particularly along the coast in fukushima and neighboring
prefectures but the ocean currents of japan also means that the radioactivity will enter the east
sea it will enter the east china sea it will disperse widely across the north pacific so all
of the communities including fishing communities that depend upon the marine environment for their
livelihoods terms of fishing seaweed shellfish they are all at risk from having their environment
polluted by radioactivity for which they are having no say they're not being consulted
and that sort of economic damage that potentially will exist is not being taken account of by the
japanese government so for the korean communities it's a very clear threat from japan we know that
radioactivity moves into the ec in 2011 when the releases took place from the initial accident
it was about 12 to 18 months before you found radioactive cesium levels rising in the ec so with
no environmental impact assessment which japan is required to conduct for under international law
we just don't really know what the long-term effects are going to be that's a fundamental
you need to do an assessment before you decide to pollute the environment therefore there's
no justification for moving forward with this plan right that's true let's hope the voices of
neighboring countries could be heard better but we will have to wrap up our discussion at this
point mr bernie thank you so much for making time for us we appreciate it you're welcome