The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of South Korea: The international community must strictly supervise the nuclear discharge of Fukushima into the sea

Yonhap News Agency, Seoul, November 22 (Xinhua) South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials stated on the 22nd that under the strict monitoring of the international community, including the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the issue of Japan's nuclear discharge into the sea should be handled in accordance with scientific and objective standards.

The official said that the International Atomic Energy Agency will also go to Japan for inspection in the future. The South Korean side will closely cooperate with international organizations to ensure that the discharge of Fukushima nuclear sewage is carried out in accordance with international standards and release information transparently and accurately.

The International Atomic Energy Agency stated on the 18th that four experts belonging to the Japan-to-Japan inspection team completed the second on-site inspection of the nuclear sewage discharge process of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. In February this year, the International Atomic Energy Agency was invited to Japan for the first time to inspect the safety of nuclear discharge into the sea. The investigation team consists of two researchers from the Environmental Research Institute under the IAEA and one expert each invited by South Korea and Finland.

The Japanese side claims that Tokyo Electric Power Company has basically purified the sewage produced by the Fukushima nuclear power plant nuclear leakage accident in 2011 through multi-nuclides removal equipment. But purified water still contains the radionuclide tritium. The Japanese government plans to dilute the concentration of tritium to one-fortieth of the national standard, or 1,500 becquerels per liter, and discharge it into the sea next year. (Finish)

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