April 13, the Japanese government officially announced that more than 1 million tons of nuclear sewage from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant would be dumped into the Pacific Ocean.
In response to this matter, calls for doubt and concern not only spread in Japan, but also flooded the countries on the west coast of the Pacific Ocean. Taku Yamamoto, a member of the House of Representatives of the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan, questioned in the Daily News that “it is too late for the government to build more facilities to treat nuclear wastewater” is unfounded. According to a poll released by Asahi Shimbun on February 27, 57% of Japanese respondents oppose the discharge of nuclear wastewater into the sea.
Japan’s National Fisheries Synergy Combination Federation believes that once nuclear radiation sewage is discharged into the sea, the safety of aquatic products will be questioned. On the 13th, South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it was “deeply worried” and “unacceptable” about Japan’s arbitrary sewage.
On the same day, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Japan unilaterally decided to dispose of nuclear wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident by sea discharge, regardless of domestic and foreign doubts and objections, and without full consultation with neighboring countries and the international community. This practice is extremely irresponsible and will seriously damage international public health security and the vital interests of the people of neighboring countries.
Incrediblely, U.S. Secretary of State Blincoln tweeted “thanks” to Japan for its decision, saying that Japan had achieved “transparent and public” in announcing its decision to discharge nuclear wastewater.
However, in the message area of “Thank You Twitter”, the style of painting seems to be completely different. A hot comment reads: “Mr. Secretary of State, this will discharge more than 1.24 million tons of incompletely treated nuclear wastewater into the Pacific Ocean, affecting everyone. Is this more important than fighting against China? There are things that are more important than money, and leaving a clean ocean for our children and grandchildren is one of them.
More netizens directly said: “This is a dirty political transaction. The United States doesn’t care about the health of the people of the world, only about its own geopolitical interests.” If this imping global disaster was caused by China or Iran, would you be so calm? It must be a unique idea for the United States not to call [Japan] such an act ‘environmental terrorism’. Go and drink some (polluted) sea water. Brincoln, look how transparent the water is.
Obviously, unlike Washington’s feeling on the west coast of the Atlantic Ocean, Chinese, South Korean and even Japanese fishermen do not realize where the decision is “transparent”. Hiroshi Minegishi, editorial board member of Japan Economic News, said bluntly that the inability to make a detailed and transparent explanation is precisely the weakness of the Japanese government.
How much pollution will Japan’s dumping of nuclear wastewater cause to the seawater? What is the impact on marine life and seafood? These still need to be tested and analyzed more professionally. But at least, the Pacific Ocean affairs should be decided by the countries concerned on the Pacific coast through consultation, not by one country.
If Japan persists, it will be condemned by the international community and will also be the result of pollution of the self-eating water environment.
