Arab News Japan

TOKYO: Several hundred demonstrators gathered outside the official residence of Prime Minister KISHIDA Fumio on Friday to protest against the imminent release of contaminated water from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant into the Pacific Ocean.

On Thursday, citizens’ organizations submitted a questionnaire to the Ministry of Industry asking for detailed explanations on the plan to release treated water into the sea. They sought details on the total cost of the project and the contaminants that will be poured into the sea.

Speakers who had met with Ministry officials said that even after filtration, there was a particularly dangerous radionuclide in the water whose half-life is 16 million years. They said it could lodge in the thyroid gland via food chain contamination and lead to cancer and thyroid problems.

Other speakers criticized July’s International Atomic Energy Agency report that “failed to consider the effects on the lives of fishermen and long-term contamination by the various radionuclides.”

Environmental organizations and citizens’ groups did not consider the proposal to lock the radioactive particles inside concrete by government authorities and the Tokyo Electric Power Company, the plant’s operator, due to the heat released during the hydration process. The environmental organizations suggested splitting the hydration process into two stages to avoid heat emissions.

In a message to the protesters, a fisherman from the Fukushima area said that fishermen with an exclusive relationship with the sea must protect it by opposing the release of water containing tritium and pointing out that fish, like humans, were living creatures.

Even though the Japanese government has provided a budget of around $580 million to compensate the fishermen, they remain opposed to the discharge of filtered water, accusing the government and TEPCO of not respecting the promise made not to discharge water from the Fukushima plant into the Pacific Ocean without their agreement.