Japan PM Kishida says still no decision on Fukushima water release date

TOMIOKA, Japan – Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Sunday his government has not yet decided when to

begin releasing treated water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean.

Media reports suggest that the discharge of some of the 1.34 million tonnes of water, which Japan insists is safe, could begin between late August and early September, despite anger from China and concern elsewhere.

The Japan Times reported on Friday that Mr Kishida was set to meet with his ministers on Tuesday to firm up the schedule.

“I believe we have reached the final stage where the government should make a decision based on comprehensive consideration” of issues such as minimising the impact on fisheries as much as possible, he told reporters on Friday.

Speaking on Sunday at the Fukushima site, wrecked by a tsunami in 2011 in one of the world’s worst atomic accidents, Mr Kishida said he would first meet fishing industry officials to discuss their concerns.

“I must refrain from commenting on a concrete timing of the release into the ocean at this point, as the decision has to be made after the government as a whole looks at measures to do with safety and reputational damage (for the fishing industry),” Mr Kishida told reporters.

“I hope to meet with fishermen, led by chairman (Masanobu) Sakamoto of Japan’s fisheries cooperative federation, as early as tomorrow,” he said.

Many fishermen are against the release, fearing it will undo years of efforts to improve the industry’s image in the wake of the 2011 catastrophe.

The water, equivalent to more than 500 Olympic swimming pools, has accumulated in the past 12 years from water used to cool three melted-down reactors combined with groundwater and rain.

Plant operator Tepco has said dangerous radioactive elements have been filtered out and that the water it plans to release is safe, a view backed by the United Nations’ atomic agency.

Japan has spent months trying to win over public opinion at home and abroad, with everything from live-streaming fish living in the treated water, to efforts to counter online disinformation.

Public concern about the plan remains high in South Korea, but its government says its review of the plan has found it in line with international standards.

But China, which has frosty relations with Japan, has banned food imports from 10 Japanese prefectures and has imposed stringent radiation tests on food from the rest of the country.

The release of the treated water – a maximum of 500,000 litres per day, Tepco says – is just one stage of the cleanup.

The far more dangerous task remains of removing radioactive debris and highly dangerous nuclear fuel from the three reactors that went into meltdown. AFP