Japan said on Sunday its experts have held talks with their Chinese counterparts to try to assuage Beijing’s concerns over the discharge of treated radioactive wastewater from the wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the sea.
The discharges have been opposed by fishing groups and neighbouring countries especially China, which banned all imports of Japanese seafood. China’s move has largely affected Japanese scallop growers and exporters to China.
During the talks held Saturday in the northeastern Chinese city of Dalian, Japanese officials provided “science-based” explanation of how the discharges have been safely carried out as planned, according to the Japanese Foreign Ministry.
A 2011 earthquake and tsunami damaged the Fukushima plant’s power supply and reactor cooling functions, triggering meltdowns of three reactors and causing large amounts of radioactive wastewater to accumulate. After more than a decade of storage in tanks taking up much space on the complex, the plant began discharging the water after treating it at least once and diluting it with seawater on August 24, starting a process that’s expected to take decades. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Chinese President Xi Jinping at their summit meeting in November agreed to hold scientific talks by experts, and the countries have since held a number of informal meetings.
