Japan Protests Plan to Discharge Nuclear Polluted Water into the Sea, Demanding Protection of the Ocean and Safeguarding the Future

Xinhua News Agency, Tokyo, May 18th Newsletter: Protecting the Ocean and Safeguarding the Future——The Japanese People Demand to Stop the Nuclear Contaminated Water Drainage Plan

Xinhua News Agency reporter

The G7 summit will open in Hiroshima, Japan on the 19th. On the eve of the meeting, hundreds of Japanese people took to the streets to oppose the discharge of nuclear-contaminated water from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant into the sea. They also submitted a petition to Tokyo Electric Power Company to stop the sea discharge plan.

In front of Tokyo Electric Power Company headquarters, about one kilometer away from Kasumigaseki where the central government departments of Japan are concentrated, people from Tokyo, Fukushima, Nagasaki and other places pulled up various banners and flags on the 16th, which read “Don’t pollute Discharge water into the sea,” “Don’t pollute our oceans,” “The sea is not a toilet for nuclear power plants,” and chanted slogans such as “Don’t pollute the ocean,” “Protect fisheries,” and “Protect the future.”

The “3.11” earthquake in 2011 led to the meltdown of the core of the Tokyo Electric Power Company’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant and the leakage of radioactive materials. The operation of continuous cooling of the core and the inflow of rainwater and groundwater into the reactor facilities produced millions of tons of nuclear contaminated water. , The nuclear contaminated water is temporarily stored in thousands of water storage tanks in the nuclear power plant. In April 2021, the Japanese government formally decided to filter and dilute the nuclear contaminated water and discharge it into the sea. In January 2023, the Japanese government set the time for the discharge of Fukushima nuclear contaminated water as “this spring and summer”.

“Stop polluting the ocean! Citizens meeting” is one of the organizers of the petition in front of TEPCO headquarters. Sato Kazuyoshi from Fukushima Prefecture, the representative of the organization, said that the Japanese government originally wanted to discharge the nuclear-contaminated water into the sea, so it kept saying that other methods would not work or that nuclear-contaminated water could not be preserved on land. Excuse. Now the government spends a lot of money to publicize the nuclear polluted water discharge plan through various channels, but the group he represents will not believe the government’s propaganda. They want to use today’s action to make a bigger voice of opposition to the world.

Another representative of the organization, Oda Chiyo, read and submitted a petition to the representative of Tokyo Electric Power Company, requesting the company to abide by the agreement with Fukushima Prefecture Fisheries Cooperation Association Federation and other organizations, and not report to the ocean before obtaining the understanding and consent of relevant parties. Discharge of nuclear-contaminated water; require disclosure of information such as the concentration and total amount of all radionuclides, and re-evaluate the impact of nuclear-contaminated water on the marine environment and organisms; require Tokyo Electric Power Company to explore the construction of large-scale water storage tanks for long-term storage of nuclear-contaminated water, and promote tritium pollution. Practical application of separation technology, etc.

Guan Xingsan, who has participated in anti-drainage rallies many times, told Xinhua News Agency that his hometown is in Fukushima Prefecture, and almost everyone, including members of the local fisherman’s association and residents in Fukushima, opposes the discharge of nuclear-contaminated water into the sea. Therefore, the sea discharge plan must be stopped. Relevant departments should think about and develop proper treatment methods instead of discharging nuclear contaminated water into the ocean.

In Tokyo’s Hibiya Park, about 500 people gathered to protest on the evening of the 16th. Yanuchi Takayuki, a fishery practitioner in Iwaki City, Fukushima Prefecture, said that there have been several leaks of nuclear-contaminated water in water storage tanks before, and aquatic products from Fukushima will be rejected because of this. Fisheries practitioners cannot accept the discharge of nuclear-contaminated water into the sea.

The protest was also supported by South Korean civic groups. A lady surnamed Liu who came from South Korea to participate in the rally said that she was very worried about the discharge of nuclear contaminated water into the sea, so she came to support the rally.

After the rally, people lined up to protest. Shouting slogans, they marched towards Ginza and passed the Tokyo Electric Power Company headquarters.