Clued-in | Japan begins new Fukushima water discharge, leaving the world to bear the cost

Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (TEPCO), operator of Japan's crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, began the 21st discharge of nuclear-contaminated water into the ocean on July 6.

The discharge will continue until July 24, releasing approximately 7,800 tonnes of water containing about 1.3 trillion becquerels of radioactive tritium.

The operation began in 2023, when Japan unilaterally pushed ahead with the discharge despite strong concerns and firm opposition from the international community.

Japan has now completed 20 rounds of discharge, releasing roughly 157,000 tonnes of nuclear-contaminated water in total.

Since the Japanese government approved the plan to discharge more than 1 million tonnes of nuclear-contaminated water from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant into the ocean, the move, which ignores the concerns of the international community, has become a global political issue involving the interests of many parties.

A simulation study by a research team at Tsinghua University previously showed that after entering the ocean, nuclear-contaminated water could spread across most of the North Pacific and reach the coasts of North America in about 1,200 days, or roughly 3.3 years.

By the start of this latest discharge, nearly three years had passed since Japan began releasing the water, and trace amounts of radionuclides such as tritium and carbon-14 had been detected in many areas of the North Pacific.

TEPCO's plan calls for about 30 years to complete the discharge of all Fukushima nuclear-contaminated water. So far, Japan has released only about one-tenth of the total.

As the ocean discharge has become a recurring practice, public attention to the issue appears to have waned compared with the widespread outrage triggered by the first release, while vigilance over the potential risks to marine ecosystems has gradually declined.

This is precisely what Japan has always wanted to see. Letting time dilute accountability and ease public scrutiny is Japan's stock-in-trade.

Even as public scrutiny fades, the international community must remain vigilant and fully recognize the grave nature of Japan's discharge of nuclear-contaminated water into the ocean and the serious harm it may cause.

The discharge poses long-term, latent and cumulative risks, with potential ecological and health impacts that warrant close attention.

It is not an acute health hazard with immediate effects; its negative impacts may continue to accumulate and spread imperceptibly over an extended period.

The Comprehensive Report on the Safety Review of the ALPS-Treated Water at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, released by the International Atomic Energy Agency on July 4, 2023, noted that the Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS) "does not remove all radioactive material. Small amounts of different radionuclides remain in the water (although they are well below regulatory limits) even after treatment, and tritium is not removed by the ALPS system at all."

These residual radioactive substances could potentially accumulate through marine food chains and eventually enter the human food supply, posing continuing risks to the health of people living along the North Pacific coast over the coming decades.

It is therefore clear that short-term monitoring results meeting safety standards do not guarantee absolute safety, nor can they justify Japan's reckless discharge of nuclear-contaminated water or its attempt to shift risks onto others. People in Pacific coastal countries should not be forced to bear the health and ecological consequences of Japan's nuclear accident.

Japan's unilateral decision to discharge nuclear-contaminated water into the ocean constitutes a serious violation of international law.

By pushing ahead with the plan without fully communicating and consulting with all stakeholders, or reaching broad international consensus, Japan has seriously violated its obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea to protect and preserve the marine environment.

To this day, Japanese politicians have neither reflected on their own mistakes nor stopped the selfish practice that harms the global public interest. Instead, they have presented the discharge as an established national policy and used it as a tool in geopolitical competition, while turning a blind eye to questions and criticism from the international community as well as concerns among their own citizens.

Before and after taking office, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has continued to avoid acknowledging the unlawful nature of the discharge, has repeatedly opposed the international community's use of the objective term "nuclear-contaminated water," and has actively promoted Fukushima-related agricultural products, all while disregarding global ecological security and public concerns.

Japan's approach to environmental governance represents a serious regression, placing its own interests above global ecological security and the common interests of humanity.

After World War II, many Western countries followed a development model of "pollute first, clean up later."

With the rise of global environmental movements, countries gradually moved away from an anthropocentric development mindset and built a global consensus on environmental governance.

However, on the Fukushima issue, many Western countries have remained silent, deliberately tolerated Japan's actions, and even actively supported and endorsed them, placing narrow geopolitical calculations above global marine ecological security.

The current international rules framework lacks binding corrective mechanisms and is unable to effectively halt Japan's discharge of nuclear-contaminated water. As a result, Japan has been able to shift the costs of managing its nuclear accident and its ecological consequences onto the rest of the world.

Meanwhile, the double standards and selective disregard of the hegemonic power have turned the vast Pacific Ocean into an innocent victim.

Marine life cannot participate in human geopolitical disputes or debates over international rules, nor can it speak up for its own survival. Yet this does not mean humanity has the right to exploit marine resources without restraint for narrow self-interests while ignoring the survival crisis facing marine ecosystems and ocean life.

Japan's continued discharge of nuclear-contaminated water into the ocean is an extremely selfish and irresponsible act that runs counter to international morality. It must be stopped immediately.

The author is an associate research fellow at the Institute of Japanese Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.