Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida reacts during a meeting with Masanobu Sakamoto, the head of the National Federation of Fisheries Cooperative Associations and others at the prime minister's office in Tokyo, Japan, August 21, 2023. /Reuters
Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said the government will decide on Tuesday when it will begin to discharge treated radioactive wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean, in a plan criticized at home and abroad.
Speaking to reporters at his office in Tokyo, Kishida reiterated the importance of moving forward with the decommissioning process for the damaged plant, but declined to give a window for when the release might happen.
Broadcaster NHK said Kishida is finalizing plans to start releasing the water as soon as possible after Thursday, without clarifying its sources.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) last month greenlighted the program, saying that the impact from the wastewater release on people and the environment would be "negligible".
Despite such assurances, the prospect of more than a million tonnes of nuclear-contaminated wastewater being pumped into the Pacific from the nuclear plant owned by Tokyo Electric Power Company has sparked alarm in South Korea and China, which banned seafood imports from some areas of Japan following the nuclear disaster in 2011.
Masanobu Sakamoto, the head of the National Federation of Fisheries Cooperative Associations speaks during a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the prime minister's office in Tokyo, Japan, August 21, 2023. /Reuters
Local fishing groups have also protested the plan, saying they are gravely concerned over the reputational damage from the wastewater release – expected to take decades to complete – and its impact on their livelihoods.
Japan's Industry Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said earlier on Monday the government had won "a degree of understanding" from the fishing industry for the release of the wastewater.
Kishida and Nishimura on Monday met Masanobu Sakamoto, the head of the National Federation of Fisheries Cooperative Associations, to offer safety assurances.
Ahead of the talks, Sakamoto said that the group's opposition to the plan had "not changed one bit," adding that they understood the release could be scientifically safe but still feared reputational damage.
The wastewater, equivalent to the contents of 500 Olympic-size swimming pools, has mostly been used to cool nuclear reactors damaged in 2011 when tsunami waves crashed into the plant on the coast north of Tokyo after an earthquake.
It has been treated to remove most radioactive elements except for tritium, an isotope of hydrogen that must be diluted because it is difficult to filter.
Kishida acknowledged the concerns of the fishing association but said the wastewater release had become a pressing matter, and asked them to understand that the disposal of the contaminated wastewater was necessary.
"I promise that we will take on the entire responsibility of ensuring the fishing industry can continue to make their living, even if that will take decades," he said.