Japanese people gather to demand that the government abide by its promise not to dispose of nuclear contaminated water on land | Japan | demand
In recent days, Japanese people have gathered to demand that the government abide by its promise not to dispose of nuclear contaminated water without authorization, withdraw its plan to discharge nuclear contaminated water into the sea, continue to store nuclear contaminated water on land, or adopt other alternative solutions.
On the 18th, despite temperatures exceeding 35 degrees Celsius in Tokyo, people from all over Japan still gathered in front of the Prime Minister's residence despite the scorching heat.
On August 18th, people from all over Japan gathered in front of the Prime Minister's residence in Tokyo to protest against the Fukushima nuclear contaminated water discharge plan. After the rally, the people went to the Senate together and submitted petitions to the government and Tokyo Electric Power Company. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhang Xiaoyu
Yuko Uno, who arrived from Kyoto, originally lived in Fukushima City, Fukushima Prefecture. After the 3.11 earthquake, he moved to Kyoto for refuge. She told reporters that since she learned about the leakage of nuclear contaminated water containing radioactive substances, she has been worried about the treatment of nuclear contaminated water. She stated that local governments in many parts of Japan, as well as domestic and foreign citizens, have expressed opposition. In this context, it is very inappropriate for the Japanese government to unilaterally decide to discharge nuclear contaminated water into the sea. She hopes to adopt a long-term plan to store nuclear contaminated water on land.
One of the representatives of the civil society organization "Don't pollute the ocean again! Citizen Conference", Katsuya Sato, said that in 2015, the Japanese government and Tokyo Electric Power Company agreed in a document with the Fukushima Prefectural Fisheries Cooperation Association Federation that "no disposal will be carried out without the understanding of stakeholders" and that the agreement cannot be broken. He said that the fishing volume in the local fishing industry in Fukushima has just recovered to about 20% before the nuclear accident, and at this time, the discharge of nuclear contaminated water into the sea will make it difficult for fishermen to sustain their livelihoods.
On the same day, the gathered public also went to the Japanese Senate Hall and submitted a petition to representatives of the Japanese government and Tokyo Electric Power Company, demanding that the Japanese government and Tokyo Electric Power Company comply with the 2015 agreement, withdraw the plan to discharge nuclear contaminated water into the sea, take thorough measures to block groundwater from flowing into the nuclear power plant, block the source of the increase in nuclear contaminated water, and re explore alternative treatment options such as long-term storage of large water tanks and mortar solidification.
Japanese congressman Tomoko Abe was originally a pediatrician. She said that the management of radioactive materials has always followed the principles of non diffusion and centralized storage as much as possible. "It's definitely not that the ocean is really vast, so emissions are okay. Besides, the open sea is everyone's ocean. Why can one's own garbage be thrown into someone else's yard? This alone is unethical."
On the 17th, civil organizations such as Friends of the Earth and the Atomic Energy Information Agency submitted over 28000 public signatures to representatives of the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, demanding that the Japanese government withdraw its plan to discharge nuclear contaminated water into the sea and continue to store it on land or adopt other alternative solutions.
The representative of the organization stated during the signature submission that the contaminated water stored in the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant contains not only tritium, but also various other radioactive substances, and their total amount has not been disclosed. Fishery professionals and other domestic and foreign citizens are deeply concerned about the plan to discharge nuclear contaminated water into the sea. Centralized management is the principle for handling radioactive materials, and land storage or other alternative solutions can be adopted.
In January of this year, the Japanese government set the discharge time for Fukushima nuclear contaminated water as "this spring and summer". Japanese media recently widely predicted that after Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's visit to the United States and return to China, a meeting of relevant cabinet members will be held to determine the specific discharge date, and the discharge may start at the end of this month or early September.
