The Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, met today in Tokyo with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and gave the “green light” to Japan to dump radioactive water from the nuclear disaster at the Daiichi reactor into the Pacific Ocean. in Fukushima, 12 years ago.

The Japanese government plans to dump 1.33 tonnes of water – from rain, underground streams, as well as injections needed to cool nuclear reactors – into the ocean, after treating it with a decontamination system that will eliminate radioactive elements, except the tritium.

Today, Grossi announced that Japan’s design conforms to international safety standards and the IAEA verified the safety of the plan to dilute and release the treated water accumulated at the nuclear plant. Thus, he essentially gave the “green light” for the discharge of water into the sea.

After a two-year review, the IAEA announced that Japan’s plans will have “negligible radioactive impact on people and the environment”.

“Tonight is a very special night,” IAEA chief Raphael Grossi told Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida before handing him a thick blue file containing the final report (center photo)

The government had announced that the drop would begin this summer, without giving further details. According to Japanese government spokesman Matsuno, the timetable has not yet been finalized.

However, the solution advanced by the Japanese authorities, with the agreement in principle of the IAEA, is to gradually pour the water into the Pacific Ocean through a pipeline, over the next 30-40 years; as the relevant approval has not yet been given to Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) by the national nuclear regulatory authority.

The regulator is expected to have its final say as early as this week.

Global concern

The highly controversial decision to dump the contaminated water into the ocean has been widely criticized, especially by Beijing, while in South Korea the price of salt has soared due to concerns about radioactive contamination.

Fishing communities in Fukushima fear customers will boycott their catch, despite strict inspection protocols for food originating from the area.

“We will explain and update in depth, nationally and internationally, the details of the IAEA report, our efforts to guarantee security and our measures to address damage to the country’s reputation and reputation,” he added.

The decontamination and dismantling work in general of the nuclear power plant is expected to last several more decades.