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S Korean president to seek public consent for Fukushima water release

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It should be called “partially” treated water.

-4 ( +5 / -9 )

Pacific island nations are also concerned over the treated water, given their suffering of the aftereffects of nuclear tests around their territories by the United States

The United States conducted 105 nuclear tests in the Pacific, many with extremely high yields. Let's see... how many nuclear tests did North Korea conduct? Six, between 2006 and 2017, conducted in their own territory...

-4 ( +7 / -11 )

Trust science... Diluted it is harmless. As is, extremely low danger.

The water is safe. There is far worse water being released into the sea everyday in much of the world. Just get on with it.

5 ( +12 / -7 )

A good move. He's taking a step forward for SK-Japan relations.

8 ( +12 / -4 )

If you can't trust IAEA, send Korean professional delegates with IAEA for the next on-sight review.

11 ( +12 / -1 )

What President Yoon is up against is the continuously lingering anti-JPN sentiment that has been ingrained into the South Korean public. It defies scientic reasons, it is purely emotional.

"The release of waste water from Japan's wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant would have a negligible effect on South Korean waters, according to a government study published on Thursday." That change would be too small to detect," an official at the Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology said."

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/fukushima-wastewater-release-would-have-limited-impact-skorean-waters-study-2023-02-16/

"In South Korea, one of the world’s most prominent nuclear energy countries, the nuclear power facilities have been regularly releasing tritium-infused wastewater into the sea near the city of Pusan (Busan), which is famed for its seafood products. Noting that fact, nuclear power experts find Seoul’s opposition “lacks any scientific basis.”

https://japan-forward.com/china-and-south-korea-too-release-nuclear-plant-wastewater-into-the-oceans/

Japan is not planning this release o it;s own. It is doing so together and under IAEA guidance.

https://www.iaea.org/topics/response/fukushima-daiichi-nuclear-accident/fukushima-daiichi-alps-treated-water-discharge/faq

7 ( +14 / -7 )

Yoon from the pro US conservative party formerly the faction who supported the Japanese occupation of Korea well of course he will lobby for the waters release.

All of his actions are totally predictable just do the bidding of Japan/USA.

-6 ( +5 / -11 )

LegrandeToday  06:25 pm JST

Yoon from the pro US conservative party formerly the faction who supported the Japanese occupation of Korea well of course he will lobby for the waters release.

All of his actions are totally predictable just do the bidding of Japan/USA.

No. He seems to be the most, in the history of South Korea, reasonable president who respects the facts and the truths. So ironic if you know the historical fact that Ye Wanyong(李完用), a child prodigy, the real patriot , driving force of 1910 annexation treaty , now labeled as the top tier traitor, was almost dead after attacked by knife-yielding thug whose name is Lee Jae-myung(李在明), the same name with the current leader of SK opposition party.

Ye Wanyong(李完用) never spoke Japanese despite he was fluent in it, when dealing with Japanese. He had a Korean Heart and Korean Pride.

3 ( +8 / -5 )

blueToday  06:33 pm JST

"In South Korea, one of the world’s most prominent nuclear energy countries, the nuclear power facilities have been regularly releasing tritium-infused wastewater into the sea near the city of Pusan (Busan), which is famed for its seafood products. Noting that fact, nuclear power experts find Seoul’s opposition “lacks any scientific basis.”

https://japan-forward.com/china-and-south-korea-too-release-nuclear-plant-wastewater-into-the-oceans/

Blyme, one of the recommended articles on the site was about anti-Japanese-ism (反日).

A quick search for "反日" generated an endless list of articles.

https://japan-forward.com/?s=%E5%8F%8D%E6%97%A5

An a quick research as to who operates the site, leads to Sankei Shimbun (a hysterically conservative news outlet) with some serious beef against South Korea, China et all. QED.

https://japan-forward.com/about-japan-forward-jp/

No surprises as to the content of the article...

Let's stick with experts over ideologues and flag-wavers, please.

Says the one who depends only on English-Wiki

3 ( +7 / -4 )

Yoon is right, only openness, transparency and education has any chance of eroding the bias and ignorance based emotional objections. Japan needs to be utterly transparent in its proposals and actions, any hint of secrecy or obfuscation will undermine everything and South Korea needs to clearly message the facts and that the material is no more or even less contaminating than that already discharged from Korea’s own nuclear power plants and that everything being done by Japan is under international oversight by the IAEA.

4 ( +7 / -3 )

People do not want to be used as guinea by the government of Japan

-6 ( +4 / -10 )

Yes, the total amount of tritium to be released during the decade long dilution and release from Fukushima is about 1/2 the amount released every year from one Korean reactor, the Kori facility.

S Korea is planning to build 11 more nuclear generating plants to bring generating capacity to 66% of its electricity usage.

Joon is being a realist. It’s hypocrisy to point fingers that the Fukushima release is unsafe, but Korean release is just dandy.

Intentional misinformation and ignorance spread so quickly on the Internet, when it should be used by people to educate themselves.

3 ( +7 / -4 )

"At first glance, releasing radioactive water into the ocean does sound like a terrible idea. Greenpeace feared the radioactivity released might change human DNA, China and South Korea expressed disquiet, while Pacific Island nations were concerned about further nuclear contamination of the Blue Pacific. One academic publication claimed the total global social welfare cost could exceed US$200 billion.

But the Japanese government, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and independent scientists have declared the planned release to be reasonable and safe.

Based on our collective professional experience in nuclear science and nuclear power, we have reached the same conclusion. Our assessment is based on the type of radioactivity to be released, the amount of radioactivity already present in the ocean, and the high level of independent oversight from the IAEA."

https://theconversation.com/no-the-fukushima-water-release-is-not-going-to-kill-the-pacific-ocean-200902

3 ( +6 / -3 )

"Annual tritium discharge at nearby nuclear power plants far exceeds what is proposed for Fukushima. The Fuqing plant in China discharged 52TBq in 2020, while the Kori plant in South Korea discharged 50TBq in 2018. Each of these power plants releases more than twice the amount to be released from Fukushima.Mar 5, 2023"

3 ( +6 / -3 )

@kennyg

No. He seems to be the most, in the history of South Korea, reasonable president who respects the facts and the truths. So ironic if you know the historical fact that Ye Wanyong(李完用), a child prodigy, the real patriot , driving force of 1910 annexation treaty , now labeled as the top tier traitor, was almost dead after attacked by knife-yielding thug whose name is Lee Jae-myung(李在明), the same name with the current leader of SK opposition party.

Ye Wanyong(李完用) never spoke Japanese despite he was fluent in it, when dealing with Japanese. He had a Korean Heart and Korean Pride.

Well KennyG you wrote something here which masquerades as something knowledgeable but actually exposes someones lack of understanding...First of all Ye Wanyong is now labeled as a traitor because he did in fact closely collaborate with the Japanese to destroy Korean sovereignty, which is why Ye's skeleton was dug up and dismembered. Ye only became prime minister because Ito Hirobumi conferred the title on him to honor him for betraying the Korean people in favor of Japan, so for you then to say Ye had a Korean heart and Korean pride is laughable, and any Korean person not associated with the faction which Ye (and now Yoon) belongs to would laugh in your face if you were to verbalize that pearl of erudite learning. Ye's skeleton might attempt to feebly nod with your statement but would probably fail as it has been dismembered BY THE KOREAN PEOPLE.

-5 ( +1 / -6 )

The IAEA hasn't released any report yet. We do not know the stance of the IAEA.

Stop the misinformation, please.

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

Total BS !

They haven't finished the cooling of the reactor so the amount of BS treated water isn't known and therefore impossible to evaluate the environmental impact concerns regarding the dumping of radioactive water in the ocean for decades.

More hysterical misinformation.

It's groundwater seeping through the containment that becomes contaminated and removed to the storage tanks. No cooling has been necessary for a long time.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Actually Yoon's office denounced this Kyodo News article as "fake news" 2 hours after it was released in Japanese language. Yoon's office reaffirms the current Fukushima area food import ban remains in place indefinitely. Yoon's trying to fight the Democratic party's bill to expand the food import ban from all of Japan's Pacific Ocean side, not attempt to lift the existing Fukushima area food import ban. '

Food safety is an extremely sensitive topic in Korea and could trigger Yoon's impeachment THIS YEAR instead of next year as anticipated after the general election if he attempted to touch the Fukushima area food import ban.

For those lacking the context, refer to the infamous 2008 US mad cow disease beef protest that almost toppled Lee's government. The US actually gave into Korean pressure and agree to export beef from only cows 3 years or younger.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_US_beef_protest_in_South_Korea

-7 ( +1 / -8 )

S Korea should stop catching fish immediately off the shores of S Korea then.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Kyodo News article is fake, this is the actual news.

https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2023/3/30/south-korea-to-keep-fukushima-seafood-ban-despite-thaw-with-japan

South Korea to keep Fukushima seafood ban despite thaw with Japan

President Yoon Seok-yeol’s administration says ‘health and safety’ top priority despite improving Seoul-Tokyo ties.

South Korea has ruled out lifting a ban on Japanese seafood imports from the area around the Fukushima nuclear plant despite warming relations between Seoul and Tokyo.

Seafood imports from near the tsunami-stricken plant will “never come into” South Korea due to health concerns related to leaked radiation, the administration of President Yoon Seok-yeol said on Thursday.

-7 ( +0 / -7 )

Peter Neil Mar. 30  11:04 pm JST

No cooling has been necessary for a long time.

AFAIK, the cooling will last for centuries.

Any sources?

Can we stop the misinformation at once?!

-5 ( +0 / -5 )

Well KennyG you wrote something here which masquerades as something knowledgeable but actually exposes someones lack of understanding...First of all Ye Wanyong is now labeled as a traitor because he did in fact closely collaborate with the Japanese to destroy Korean sovereignty, which is why Ye's skeleton was dug up and dismembered. Ye only became prime minister because Ito Hirobumi conferred the title on him to honor him for betraying the Korean people in favor of Japan, so for you then to say Ye had a Korean heart and Korean pride is laughable, and any Korean person not associated with the faction which Ye (and now Yoon) belongs to would laugh in your face if you were to verbalize that pearl of erudite learning. Ye's skeleton might attempt to feebly nod with your statement but would probably fail as it has been dismembered BY THE KOREAN PEOPLE.

Thanks for a well-known story.

2 ( +5 / -3 )

lunaticToday  01:59 am JST

AFAIK, the cooling will last for centuries.

Then your “knowledge” is woefully wrong.

Any sources?

The internet is at your fingertips.

Can we stop the misinformation at once?!

Yes, please do.

5 ( +6 / -1 )

They are still cooling the fuel rods now.

It's not me saying.

Henry Puna, Secretary-General of the Pacific Islands Forum, said that on November 2022.

For more than a decade, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, known as TEPCO, has been using water to cool the excess heat still emanating from the melted fuel rods.

https://insidestory.org.au/water-water-everywhere/

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

They haven't finished the cooling of the reactor …

That was what you replied to.

Reactor and fuel rods are different. Fuel rods cool in about 10 years. They are highly radioactive and there is a process to contain and store them used throughout the world.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Hasn’t enough radiation already been released into Fukushima’s environment?

But a little won’t hurt, will it?

What do the kids in Fukushima with thyroid cancer say?

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

It’s called over diagnosis. Over diagnosis in Korea became an epidemic for thyroid cancer. Mass screenings everywhere for everything always show higher prevalence of non-symptomatic conditions that have little to no effect on the life of the people.

Medical studies have shown that the prevalence was no different than in areas not affected by Fukushima and most detected were developed at an early age before the Fukushima incident.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

@kennyG

Ye Wanyong(李完用) never spoke Japanese despite he was fluent in it, when dealing with Japanese. He had a Korean Heart and Korean Pride.

What you've written is an anecdotal story perpetuated by radical Japanese nationalists who publish revisionist history and has no basis in fact.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

@moonbloom

What you've written is an anecdotal story perpetuated by radical Japanese nationalists who publish revisionist history and has no basis in fact.

Nope, that part is based on a Korean author. Those Korean academia who studied his statue (although seems not many) know he was not as pro-Japan in real sense as having been treated like that later in SK .

Also, the following is from Korean media Korea JoongAng Daily

First, we cannot say that Lee was a born Japanese sympathizer. He passed a government examination to become a public servant in 1882. During the "days of enlightenment" of Choson, he learned English at Yukyeong Gongwon, the nation's first language school. He served as a charge d'affaires to the United States for two years from 1888. With Yun Chi-ho and Yu Gil-jun, Lee, one of the very few Koreans who could speak English, first was known as pro-American. In 1894, he declined to take office as a charge d'affaires to Japan, citing mourning for his mother. Unlike Song Byeong-jun, a devoted member of a pro-Japanese group, Lee never learned to speak Japanese. Surprisingly, he was the founder of the Independence Club established in 1896.

https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2003/01/05/editorials/FOUNTAINWatch-How-You-Use-Traitor/1894172.html?detailWord=

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

@kennyG

Nope, that part is based on a Korean author. Those Korean academia who studied his statue (although seems not many) know he was not as pro-Japan in real sense as having been treated like that later in SK .

Also, the following is from Korean media Korea JoongAng Daily

First, we cannot say that Lee was a born Japanese sympathizer. He passed a government examination to become a public servant in 1882. During the "days of enlightenment" of Choson, he learned English at Yukyeong Gongwon, the nation's first language school. He served as a charge d'affaires to the United States for two years from 1888. With Yun Chi-ho and Yu Gil-jun, Lee, one of the very few Koreans who could speak English, first was known as pro-American. In 1894, he declined to take office as a charge d'affaires to Japan, citing mourning for his mother. Unlike Song Byeong-jun, a devoted member of a pro-Japanese group, Lee never learned to speak Japanese. Surprisingly, he was the founder of the Independence Club established in 1896.

LOL The Korea JoongAng Daily was created by the conservative chaebol group who support Yoon and Yoon's party. And yes there are conservative academics funded by right-wing conservatives in South Korea as elsewhere.

JoongAng Ilbo is considered by some critics as part of Chojoongdong (Korean: 조중동, CJD), a pejorative term that refers to the three highly circulated conservative newspapers in South Korea including JoongAng Ilbo. The word is an acronym of the ChosunJoong-ang and Dong-a Ilbo newspapers, and the grouping is seen as forming the basis of South Korea's conservative media.[16] The term was used by Hankyoreh editor Jung Yeonju (Korean: 정연주) as early as October 2000.[17] Korean liberals criticize Chojoongdong primarily because of their conservative-biased editorial stances and doing business in a collusive and surreptitious manner.

So yeah you can pretend Korean people view Ye Wanyong as a patriot etc but you'd be very wrong, a fact born out of the conservative Korea JoongAng's desperate attempt to change the narrative with the editorial you referenced (if it was commonly accepted as you said there would be no need for that).

0 ( +2 / -2 )

@moonbloom

LOL The Korea JoongAng Daily was created by the conservative chaebol group who support Yoon and Yoon's party. And yes there are conservative academics funded by right-wing conservatives in South Korea as elsewhere.

So? At least you were wrong saying "What you've written is an anecdotal story perpetuated by radical Japanese nationalists who publish revisionist history and has no basis in fact."

I just corrected it.

So yeah you can pretend Korean people view Ye Wanyong as a patriot etc but you'd be very wrong, a fact born out of the conservative Korea JoongAng's desperate attempt to change the narrative with the editorial you referenced (if it was commonly accepted as you said there would be no need for that).

Did I pretend? What did I have to pretend for? Also where did I mention it was commonly accepted?

Hell No, that is the problem of your home country, me thinks.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Also where did I mention it was commonly accepted?

Ok so then all you did was state your own misguided opinion paraded as some kind of factual statement, that's fine.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Ok so then all you did was state your own misguided opinion paraded as some kind of factual statement, that's fine.

Oh please , how could you assert it is misguiding. I appreciate if you could give me anything to refute me by whatever opposite narratives, but hopefully , not the one emotionally fabricated. Both of you and I have no idea about him as a person, YES?

I do my work to judge rather than flowing along with fake narratives which are common, in South Korean society, defining him as a traitor. in what sense, you are saying betraying his own country or his own people really? TELL ME.

I can add up much more about him if mods allow it.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Taking second look, I wonder what exactly do you mean by misguided opinions.

All I have said so far is

No. He seems to be the most, in the history of South Korea, reasonable president who respects the facts and the truths. So ironic if you know the historical fact that Ye Wanyong(李完用), a child prodigy, the real patriot , driving force of 1910 annexation treaty , now labeled as the top tier traitor, was almost dead after attacked by knife-yielding thug whose name is Lee Jae-myung(李在明), the same name with the current leader of SK opposition party.

Ye Wanyong(李完用) never spoke Japanese despite he was fluent in it, when dealing with Japanese. He had a Korean Heart and Korean Pride.

The only part I could be possibly wrong( because there are opposite narratives) I can think of is

He never spoke Japanese when dealing with any Japanese as he just couldn't because he never tried to learn it.

Or

the real patriot...

It depends on how you define the patriot.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

@Samit Basu

Even without a single victim, the mad cow disease scandal in South Korea proves how easy it is for Koreans to believe something that has no scientific basis. Why don't Koreans think growth hormones are more dangerous than meat-and-bone meal in cattle feed?

Treated water in Japan is reported as contaminated water in South Korea, which is still not true. There is no substitute for purifying factory wastewater and releasing it into the sea. And the fact that it is supervised by an international organization called the IAEA is more scientific than anything else. In addition, no problems were found in the preliminary survey by the Korean government.

April 15, 2021

According to Ahn Byung-gil, a member of the National Assembly of the largest opposition party, "People's Power," the government's joint task force (TF) formed by the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries and the Nuclear Safety Commission, etc. created a report on

Regarding the impact of the contaminated water on South Korea's waters, the report said, "Several years after it was released into the ocean, even if it reached domestic waters, it would be dispersed and diluted by ocean currents, and there would be no meaningful impact."

This is a quote from seven expert meetings held by the Nuclear Safety Commission, and concluded that "there is no problem with the performance of Japan's multi-nuclide removal system (ALPS) for purifying contaminated water."

He also wrote that when the effects of radiation on the coastal areas of Japan were investigated using the method of the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR), the figures were reasonable.

Regarding the radioactive material tritium (tritium) contained in the contaminated water, it was determined that "it is difficult to concentrate and accumulate in living organisms, and the possibility of significant exposure through ingestion of marine products is extremely low."

kimchiboxs@yna.co.kr

However, no matter how much scientific evidence and facts are presented to Koreans, they will never be convinced. Their anti-Japan denies everything about Japan.

China, Russia, and South Korea, which continue to refuse IAEA inspections, and their heavy water reactor nuclear power plants and radioactive waste are still causing far more serious environmental destruction than the treated water from Fukushima.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Didn't see a single scientific evidence in your long post.

Just quotes from random politicians.

The only scientific institution you named on the post is the IAEA, the IAEA hasn't released any report yet. We don't know yet the position of the IAEA.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Facing a polling collapse, Yoon is scheduled to make a public speech declaring that

1) Liancourt Rocks is undisputedly Korean territory, no dialog with Japan regarding this matter.

2) Yoon's administration will never lift ban on Fukushima area sea food, covering Japan's east coast from Iwate all the way down to Tokyo. Remember, Yoon can be impeached this year if he didn't make it absolutely clear.

Yoon's cornered and is facing a traitor narrative.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

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