Two years ago, in April of  2021, soon after the Japanese government unveiled its plans to release 1.37 million tonnes of nuclear-contaminated wastewater from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant into the Pacific Ocean starting spring or early summer of 2023, Talei Luscia Mangioni,  a Youngsolwara activist and a PhD candidate at the Australian National University and Joey Tau, a Papua New Guinean who works as a Campaigner for the Pacific Network on Globalization (PANG), jointly wrote an article for The Guardian on April 26, 2021, in which they described Japan’s nuclear wastewater discharge plan as an “unjust act” that would do catastrophic harm “to Pacific peoples, who have carried the disproportionate human cost of nuclearism in our region, this is yet another act of catastrophic and irreversible trans-boundary harm that our region has not consented to."

Their voice against Japan's radioactive wastewater plan is not only the voice of the people of the Asia-Pacific region, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and neighboring countries, but also the whole world, because Fukushima’s wastewater, with high levels of radioactive material will mix with the main water flow which will pose a major health risk to the surrounding area and even for the people along the Pacific Ocean, not to mention its negative environmental effects on Earth. Japan's dumping of nuclear waste water into the sea is undoubtedly a shameful act that can be called a “war crime” against humanity.

It must be remembered here that the nuclear reactor building at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in northeast Japan was destroyed in a hydrogen explosion following the massive 2011 earthquake and subsequent tsunami. The giant waves of the tsunami wreaked havoc on the cooling systems of three nuclear reactors of the disaster-struck plant. The Fukushima nuclear plant was shut down due to the threat of more radioactive radiation. It was considered the world's second-worst nuclear disaster after the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. At that time, Japan used millions of metric tonnes of water to cool the damaged reactors. Currently, more than 1.37 million tonnes of highly radioactive water are stored in over 1,000 large tanks at various sites by the Japanese energy company - Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO). 

The Japanese government and TEPCO have been negotiating for the past few years to get the international community's approval to dump the contaminated water into the sea. Notably, the Japanese government announced its official plan for Fukushima wastewater discharge in July 2022. Explaining Japan's nuke wastewater discharge plan on April 13, 2021, the then Prime Minister of Japan, Yoshihide Suga, said that the Japanese government had decided that releasing the water into the Pacific Ocean was the “most realistic” option, and “unavoidable in order to achieve Fukushima’s recovery,” as per the report of AP news agency. 

Over the past two years, Japan’s controversial dumping plan has sparked anxiety and protests at home and in the international community, including some Pacific Island nations, and neighboring countries such as China, South Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, and Malaysia.  In contrast, some Western countries are very "confident" about Japan's nuclear-contaminated water discharge plan. The US-led G7 endorsed Japan’s “reckless” dumping plan in the two-day G7 Ministers’ Meeting on April 15-16 in Sapporo, Japan, ignoring science and worldwide protests. Greenpeace International wrote in an article on April 16 that Japan's nuke wastewater discharge plan is “a violation of the UN Convention Law of the Sea.”

Amid ongoing controversy at home and abroad against Japan's dumping plan, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has approved Japan's plan to dump “treated” nuclear wastewater into the Pacific Ocean through the Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS) over the next few decades. On July 4, 2023, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi handed over the agency's final comprehensive safety review report to Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo.

Explaining the safety of the Fukushima water release plan to both the Japanese people and the international community, Grossi stated at a joint press conference with Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi on July 4  that the IAEA has concluded after a two-year assessment that the plan is “consistent with relevant international safety standards” and that while societal, political and environmental concerns have been raised, the discharged water “will have negligible radiological impact on people and the environment,” as per the reports of various media organizations on July 4, 2023.

After getting the IAEA's “green light”, Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) issued the certificate to TEPCO for discharging nuclear-contaminated water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant on July 7. Japan is now ramping up to start discharging nuclear-contaminated wastewater this August.

But the IAEA's endorsement of the Fukushima water release into the ocean has attracted global attention and aroused heated protests from the international community, environmental groups, many nuclear scientists and neighboring countries, including China and South Korea.

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Quite expectedly, Japanese fishermen and local people have raised their concerns over the contentious plan as it will seriously impact their businesses and way of life. Many nuclear scientists opposed the IAEA assessment report on the release of Fukushima nuclear-contaminated water into the sea. 

Although the Japanese government and TEPCO claimed that it will release the “treated” radioactive water into the ocean from the coastal site, nuclear scientists and environmentalists have expressed their doubt about TEPCO’s decommissioning process.

Several studies have shown that there are more than 60 types of radionuclides, including tritium, in the Fukushima nuclear-contaminated water. Tritium is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen that is hard to separate from water. The Japanese side also acknowledged that about 70 percent of nuclear-contaminated water treated with ALPS technology does not meet international discharge standards. It is a bitter truth that the Japanese government doesn’t care how much other countries will pay for Japan's pollution program.

Zafar Koreshi, a nuclear scientist at Air University, Pakistan, said in an interview with Xinhua News agency on July 22: "I think it's a very favorable treatment to Japan by the IAEA. It ignored the interest of the local people who are affected by this and the regional countries who are going to be affected by this."

Japan's nuclear contaminated-water disposal plan is a transboundary problem. The Fukushima nuclear-contaminated water that is released by Japan will not only stay in and around Japan. According to research by a German marine research institution, within 57 days of the discharge of the contaminated water, the radioactive materials will spread to most of the Pacific Ocean and in 10 years, to waters across the world.

Quite justifiably, neighboring countries have vociferously protested Japan's plan to dispose of nuclear wastewater into the ocean. On July 4, China called Japan's plan irresponsible, unpopular and unilateral. It is entirely reasonable for the Chinese ambassador to Tokyo, Wu Jianghao, to slam Japan's plan by stating that the IAEA's report cannot be a "pass" for the radioactive water release into the sea. “China urges Japan to face up to the legitimate concerns of the international community and people in Japan and stop forcibly proceeding with its discharge plan”, Wu stated.

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement on July 4, saying the IAEA report “failed to fully reflect the views of experts who participated in the review, and the conclusion was not shared by all experts.” “The ocean is humanity’s common good, not Japan’s private sewer,” as in the words of Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin.

An official of North Korea’s Environment Protection Ministry slammed the IAEA for its unreasonable approval of the Fukushima water dump. He stated through state media: “What matters is the unreasonable behavior of IAEA actively patronizing and facilitating Japan’s projected discharge of nuclear-polluted water, which is unimaginable.”

According to a report published by The Korea Herald on June 1,2023: 7 out of 10 South Koreans residing in the greater Seoul area expressed their opposition to the release of ‘poisonous’ nuclear-contaminated wastewater into the sea. Xinhua News Agency reported on July 21 that South Korean fishermen demonstrated a maritime protest rally called “flower bier” to protest against Japan’s contaminated water release plan. Several countries, including China and South Korea, have banned Japanese seafood.

As Japan moves forward with its wastewater disposal plan, global opposition to Japan's irresponsible actions is growing stronger by the day. The Pacific Ocean is the common homeland of mankind, not a nuclear test site for some countries or a bargaining chip in geopolitical games. The Japanese government should heed the reasonable appeals of all parties and immediately stop the plan to release nuclear-contaminated water into the sea. Let's hope that the Western countries that are silent today will not be complicit in Japan's selfish, reckless Fukushima disposal plan. It is the imperative duty of all countries to leave a beautiful world free of nuclear pollution for future generations.