IWAKI: The head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog tried to reassure local residents and representatives on Wednesday that the planned release of treated wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear plant is safe.

The planned, decades-long discharge of accumulated water from the devastated nuclear facility has been approved by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as meeting global standards. Its chief Rafael Grossi acknowledged at a meeting in Iwaki, Fukushima prefecture, that concerns remain.

“All these complex graphs and statistics are one thing but the reality, the reality of people, the reality of the economy, the reality of the social mood and perceptions may be different,” he told a meeting of residents and officials.

Some 1.33 million cubic metres of groundwater, rainwater and water used for cooling have accumulated at the Fukushima site, which is being decommissioned after several reactors went into meltdown following the 2011 tsunami that badly damaged the plant.

Plant operator TEPCO treats the water through its ALPS processing system to remove almost all radioactive elements except tritium, and plans to dilute it before discharging it into the ocean over several decades.

Published in Dawn, July 6th, 2023