TOKYO, September 4. /TASS/. Jordanian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ayman Safadi expressed confidence on Monday that the release of water from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant into the ocean has been in line with international norms.
"We believe that Japan has been discharging [the water] in accordance with international norms," the Japanese Foreign Ministry quoted Safadi as saying at a meeting in Amman with his Japanese counterpart Yoshimasa Hayashi.
In March 2011, a tsunami caused damage to power supply and cooling systems at the Fukushima 1 nuclear power plant, which caused a nuclear fuel meltdown in three reactors, accompanied by explosions and the emission of radiation into the atmosphere. Vast territories were contaminated, forcing the evacuation of tens of thousands of people.
The reactors used water for cooling, and storing this water has become problematic due to its large volume — about 1.34 million tons. In April, 2021, the Japanese government authorized the discharge of a large amount of this water, which is said to be mostly cleared of radioactive substances, but still contains tritium, a radioactive hydrogen isotope. There are plans to release as much as 31,200 metric tons of wastewater into the ocean by March 31, 2024.
On August 24, the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) reported that Japanese specialists began ocean dumping of the first batch of water, purified from radioactive elements, from the Fukushima-1 NPP. Two days later, the company said that no traces of tritium had been found in samples of water collected from 10 different areas within a 3 km radius, nor have any been found in the samples of fish examined by experts from the Japanese Fisheries Agency.
Tokyo’s decision has been criticized by a number of countries, mostly China. On August 24, China’s customs agency suspended seafood imports from Japan.