The Japanese Environment Ministry has reported that construction workers illicitly took and sold potentially radioactive scrap metal from the vicinity of the severely damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant.

This material disappeared from a museum undergoing demolition in a restricted zone about four kilometers from the northeastern Japanese nuclear facility, which was crippled by a tsunami in 2011.

Despite the area being reopened for habitation in 2022 following extensive decontamination efforts, radiation levels can still exceed normal levels, and the area remains encircled by a no-entry zone.

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Environment Ministry official Kei Osada informed AFP that the ministry learned about the theft in late July from workers involved in the demolition work, and they are currently cooperating with the police in exchanging information. Osada mentioned that the metal may have been incorporated into the building's structural framework, implying that it may not have been subjected to high radiation levels during the nuclear accident; however, the stolen scrap metals have not undergone radiation level assessments.

$6,000 for radioactive scrap metal

The quantity of missing metal, its current whereabouts, and potential health risks remain unclear. According to reports citing anonymous sources, the workers sold the scrap metal to companies outside the restricted zone for approximately 900,000 yen ($6,000).

Following the catastrophic tsunami in March 2011, which led to multiple meltdowns at the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear plant, marking the most severe nuclear incident since Chernobyl, many areas surrounding the plant have been declared safe for residents to return to after extensive decontamination efforts, with only 2.2 percent of the prefecture still under no-entry orders.

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Last month, Tokyo began dumping into the Pacific Ocean around 1.33 million cubic meters of groundwater, rainwater, and water that were used for cooling the three damaged reactors at the Fukushima site.

However, the plan was met with criticism by several regional neighbors, including Beijing and the DPRK as well as South Korea. China said that a report issued by the IAEA failed to take into consideration the views of experts who partook in the review of the plan and that the release of treated wastewater may thus pose a serious health hazard.

Some Japanese fishermen have also opposed the plan, saying that fish may suffer from contamination if the water is released. 

China also banned imports of foodstuffs from ten Japanese prefectures including Fukushima" over safety concerns.

"Japan still has many problems in terms of the legitimacy of ocean dumping, the reliability of the purification equipment, and the completeness of the monitoring plan," Beijing stated then.

Joining concerned parties, South Korean Oceans Minister Cho Seung-hwan announced, earlier this month, plans to increase the number of testing sites to about 250 next year in response to the draining of Fukushima water.

Cho's statement came a month after local media reports said that Seoul began emergency radiation tests on samples from a total of 75 coastal locations in the east, west, and south of South Korea, as well as the waters off the southern island of Jeju.

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