On August 24, in disregard of the strong criticism and opposition from the international community, the Japanese government unilaterally started the release of the Fukushima nuclear-contaminated water into the ocean. Such action seriously undermined the authority and credibility of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), severely harmed people’s health and rights and interests of marine environment in neighbouring countries, and gravely jeopardized security and development interests of global nuclear energy industry. China firmly opposes and strongly condemns it.
The disposal of the Fukushima nuclear-contaminated water is a major issue about nuclear safety. Its impact goes beyond Japan’s borders, and the issue is by no means a private matter for Japan. Since humanity began using nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, there has been neither any precedent nor universally recognized standards for discharging nuclear-contaminated water into the ocean. The Fukushima nuclear accident which took place 12 years ago was a major catastrophe that already caused the leakage of large amounts of radioactive substances into the ocean. There could be a man-made secondary disaster to the local people and the whole world if Japan chooses to dump the water into the ocean just to serve Japan’s selfish interests.
Japan has been using the IAEA’s Comprehensive Report released last month, hyping up the safety and harmlessness of the nuclear-contaminated water. In fact, the IAEA has conducted a review of Japan’s ocean discharge plan at the request of Japan, which is of the nature of technical assistance and advisory service. Neither has it the force of the international law, nor can it give legitimacy and legality to Japan’s ocean discharge plan. The scope of the IAEA review was strictly limited by Japan, which has no mandate to evaluate other disposal options for the Fukushima nuclear-contaminated water, or the effectiveness and long-term reliability of the treatment facility. The IAEA has only reviewed and made its judgement based on the data and information provided by Japan, and conducted inter-laboratory comparison (ILC) with a small amount of samples of nuclear-contaminated water collected by Japan. Under such circumstances that the authenticity of data and the accuracy of information remains to be verified and independence and representation of sampling is severely insufficient, the conclusion of the IAEA’s review lacks adequate scientific or factual basis and inevitably has its limitations.
Japan failed to prove the legitimacy and legality of the ocean discharge decision, the long-term reliability of the purification facility, and the authenticity and accuracy of the nuclear-contaminated water data. It failed to prove that the long-term ocean discharge is safe and harmless to the marine environment and people’s health, and that the monitoring plan is sound and effective. Japan also failed to have thorough consultations with other stakeholders. It has to be pointed out that if the Fukushima nuclear-contaminated water is truly safe, it is not necessary to dump it into the ocean, on the other hand, if such nuclear-contaminated water is not safe, Japan should not choose to dump it into the ocean. Therefore, it is unjustified, unreasonable and unnecessary for Japan to push through the ocean discharge plan.
The ocean belongs to all humanity. To forcibly start the ocean discharge is an extremely selfish and irresponsible act in disregard of the global public interest. Once the nuclear-contaminated water is dumped into the ocean, there is no way to recollect, while the hazards to marine environment and human health will last for decades. By dumping the water into the ocean, Japan is spreading the risks to the rest of the world and passing an open wound onto the future generations of humanity. By doing so, Japan has turned itself into a saboteur of the ecological system and polluter of the global marine environment. It is infringing upon people’s rights to health, development and a healthy environment, which violates Japan’s moral responsibilities and obligations under international law. From the moment Japan started the discharge, it has put itself in the dock in front of the international community and is bound to face international condemnation for many years to come. China urges Japan to immediately stop its wrongdoing.
The Chinese government always puts people’s wellbeing first, and will take all measures necessary to safeguard food safety and the health of Chinese people.