STOCKHOLM: The tritium concentration in wastewater being released from Japan’s stricken Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear plant is under expected levels and poses no risk to the population, the head of the UN atomic watchdog said on Tuesday.

“So far we have been able to confirm that the first releases of these waters do not contain any radionuclide at levels that would be harmful,” Rafael Grossi said during a visit to Stockholm.

Twelve years after one of the world’s worst nuclear accidents, Japan began releasing wastewater into the Pacific Ocean last week, as it gradually discharges around 540 Olympic swimming pools’ worth of water over several decades.

“The beginning has been according to what we were expecting … but we will continue (to monitor) … until the last drop is released,” Grossi said.

The IAEA said on August 24 that its independent analysis of the tritium concentration in the diluted water being discharged was “far below the operational limit of 1,500 becquerels per litre.” That limit was in turn much lower than the Japanese national safety standard.

Japan has repeatedly insisted the wastewater will be harmless, but the move has elicited fears among local fishermen and sparked anger in China, which has suspended its seafood imports from Japan.

Published in Dawn, August 30th, 2023