S. Korea urges Japan to present clear, detailed plan for Fukushima water
- 5 years ago
외교부, 후쿠시마 원전 오염수 방출 관련 주한일본대사관 경제공사 초치•협의
It's been over 8 years since a tsunami caused the meltdown of reactors in the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan.
And more water is being contaminated every second.
Amid reports that Japan might discharge the vast amount of radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean, South Korea has officially voiced concerns, urging Japan for a clarification.
Lee Ji-won at the foreign ministry.
South Korea has urged Japan to give a clear and detailed plan of how it will clean up the contaminated water from Fukushima.
Seoul's foreign affairs ministry summoned Tomofumi Nishinaga, Japan's economic minister at the Japanese embassy in Seoul on Monday to relay the government's grave concerns about the water, and reports that Japan is planning to release it into the Pacific Ocean.
It urged Japan to clarify its position on a report from Greenpeace saying Japan has decided to discharge more than 1 million tons of radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean, which would cause serious damage to the whole ocean and to neighboring countries.
It then called on Japan to lay out its plans to deal with the issue and share them with the international community.
According to a senior official at Seoul's foreign ministry, the Japanese official said he will deliver Seoul's concerns to Tokyo, but he also said that Greenpeace does not represent the Japanese government's official stance.
The South Korean official told reporters that discharging the water into the ocean is one of the 6 ways Japan has mentioned before,... though it seems like it's not yet been confirmed.
Treating and then releasing water is a common way used by many countries to get rid of contaminated water cheaply and quickly.
But the South Korean official added that Japan's proposed use of that method is causing protests around the world, because so much contaminated water has never been released before.
Other things it proposed as a possible solution, the official said, were to evaporate it or store it for longer.
The official said Japan told Korea in July that first, it's still coming up with a solution and a schedule for dealing with the issue,... and that it will keep the international community up to date.
In the meantime, it said it's working on a range of measures such as creating more storage space.
But the concern is that storage space will reach its limit of 1-point-3-7 million tons in 2022.
Seoul's foreign ministry said Monday that it offered to work with Tokyo to find a solution, and the two sides have also been reportedly discussing the formation of a bilateral consultative body on the matter since last year.
This comes a week after Seoul's foreign ministry unveiled what it's doing to solve this issue, and urged Japan to clean up its toxic water.
Lee Ji-won, Arirang News.
It's been over 8 years since a tsunami caused the meltdown of reactors in the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan.
And more water is being contaminated every second.
Amid reports that Japan might discharge the vast amount of radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean, South Korea has officially voiced concerns, urging Japan for a clarification.
Lee Ji-won at the foreign ministry.
South Korea has urged Japan to give a clear and detailed plan of how it will clean up the contaminated water from Fukushima.
Seoul's foreign affairs ministry summoned Tomofumi Nishinaga, Japan's economic minister at the Japanese embassy in Seoul on Monday to relay the government's grave concerns about the water, and reports that Japan is planning to release it into the Pacific Ocean.
It urged Japan to clarify its position on a report from Greenpeace saying Japan has decided to discharge more than 1 million tons of radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean, which would cause serious damage to the whole ocean and to neighboring countries.
It then called on Japan to lay out its plans to deal with the issue and share them with the international community.
According to a senior official at Seoul's foreign ministry, the Japanese official said he will deliver Seoul's concerns to Tokyo, but he also said that Greenpeace does not represent the Japanese government's official stance.
The South Korean official told reporters that discharging the water into the ocean is one of the 6 ways Japan has mentioned before,... though it seems like it's not yet been confirmed.
Treating and then releasing water is a common way used by many countries to get rid of contaminated water cheaply and quickly.
But the South Korean official added that Japan's proposed use of that method is causing protests around the world, because so much contaminated water has never been released before.
Other things it proposed as a possible solution, the official said, were to evaporate it or store it for longer.
The official said Japan told Korea in July that first, it's still coming up with a solution and a schedule for dealing with the issue,... and that it will keep the international community up to date.
In the meantime, it said it's working on a range of measures such as creating more storage space.
But the concern is that storage space will reach its limit of 1-point-3-7 million tons in 2022.
Seoul's foreign ministry said Monday that it offered to work with Tokyo to find a solution, and the two sides have also been reportedly discussing the formation of a bilateral consultative body on the matter since last year.
This comes a week after Seoul's foreign ministry unveiled what it's doing to solve this issue, and urged Japan to clean up its toxic water.
Lee Ji-won, Arirang News.