China and Japan agree on international supervision of water discharge from Fukushima nuclear plant

MADRD, September 21 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The governments of China and Japan have reached an agreement on long-term monitoring of the quality of water discharged from the Fukushima nuclear power plant through an international mechanism that allows other countries, including China, to take their own samples for analysis.

The agreement includes Japan’s “full cooperation” in “creating an independent and effective long-term international monitoring mechanism in which participants can meaningfully intervene,” the Chinese government said in a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The mechanism will be run by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and will allow “participating countries to carry out independent monitoring and sampling, as well as comparisons between laboratories.”

Beijing further explains that as it participates in this “long-term international monitoring”, it “will begin to adjust relevant measures based on scientific evidence and gradually resume imports of Japanese water products that comply with regulations.”

Japan began releasing water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant just over a year ago, after treating it to prevent damage to the environment. The IAEA has confirmed in successive reports that there is no risk, but countries in the region initially expressed their doubts.

The Japanese government had criticised the bans on fish and Beijing is now willing to “adjust” some of the measures. It has not set a date for the resumption of imports, although it has suggested that it will lift the ban once it has been able to become involved in the entire process of monitoring the waters to rule out possible contamination first-hand.

The Fukushima nuclear power plant suffered a serious accident in 2011, following an earthquake and subsequent tsunami. The company responsible had demanded the release of the previously treated water, arguing that continuing to store it in large tanks at the plant posed a much greater risk in the event of a new natural disaster.