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© Thomson Reuters 2023.U.S. envoy: China's reaction to Fukushima water release is economic coercion
By Chris Gallagher and Sakura Murakami SOMA, Fukushima©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.
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JJE
Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.
And this from a country that maintains sanctions on more than 50% of the countries in the world.
sakurasuki
That pics really shows how photo ops being done. Why those ladies are not smiling as he does? Because they know the real massive buyer for fisheries product before 2011 are South Korea and China, to fix those issue can not be done by only photo ops.
kiwiboy
Agree. China releases far more radiation from their plants every year than Japan is planning to. If China really is worried about contaminating water they can start making changes at home. But of course they're not. It's all political.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tytSIir3pKA&t=1s&ab_channel=ChinaUncensored
OssanAmerica
Agree with the Ambassador. In typical hypocritical fashion China uses trade and economics as a weapon. There is no science or safety behind China's position as the Qinshan power plant in Zhejiang Province released 218 trillion becquerels of tritium in 2021. Which is ten times the maximum amount of tritium to be discharged from the Fukushima Daiichi plant in one year.
Japan should just ban any exports to China period. Oversupply of seafood should be made available at low prices to Japanese consumers, who are struggling with rising living costs.
Fighto!
Agreed with Emmanuel 100%.
This is pure politics - namely anti-Japan politics- on display from the Communist Party. Nothing more.
Since when has the CCP ever cared about the "safety" and well being of their citizens? Since never.
Great to see the US has Japan's back on this.
kintsugi
The Chinese economy is not doing so well and this provides a distraction.
nandakandamanda
China is behind their own massive fishing fleet (probably fishing those same waters) even as they try to strangle Japan’s fishery industry and trade.
Hiro S Nobumasa
As Japan's ally , United States ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel is obligated to let his country buy all those da-kine delicious and safe fishes that China refused to buy.
TrevorPeace
@Hiro, on the face of it, yours is a good idea. But, Americans eat more beef, cholesterol-laden hot dogs, fried foods and McDonald's burgers than they do fish. Can't change that with a suggestion they eat healthier foods, even if they know nothing about the Fukushima seafood debate.
kurisupisu
Err not quite.
How long has Mr Ambassador been in Japan?
Well, he arrived in 2022.
The disaster at Fukushima has been ongoing since 2011.
Ive been in Japan for decades and know full well the scandals and coverups that have gone on.
The Japanese people know even better than me!
My first vivid memory of no good here was Shin Kanemaru being placed in a wheelchair and hiding in a hospital in Tokyo.-he was not sick
There were beautiful Fukushima peaches on display today and they really were exceptional but nobody was buying.
The Chinese might say it plainly but the Japanese people most certainly think the same more than Emanuel will ever know
oldman_13
Some of the Chi-comm owned news websites are truly comical. Some of them have obviously fake news articles about Japanese politicians drinking Fukushima water and then dying. The anti-Japan crowd online have no shame or decency in their misinformation campaign. A lot of them make outrageous claims not backed by any real science. How ironic it is those that are loudest to criticize others of whitewashing history are the biggest such offenders.
OKuniyoshi
You,. the supposed leader of the world, set bad examples, so what do you expect?? Countries are getting wise to you, so, just copying/follow you when they deal with others, especially your allies.
isabelle
Emanuel hits the nail on the head with this. For the CCP, literally everything is political.
Japan definitely should take the case to the WTO. It won't change China, but it will show them up and highlight their purely political lies to the world. The CCP hates being shown up for the liars that they are (as in cases like the UNCLOS ruling), which is all the more reason to do it.
kaimycahl
@Zoroto Perhaps you have already tasted it
I can see the lady's face, his suit is going to smell like radioactive fish.
kaimycahl
The problems with the CCP is their economy has tanked the country is is a spiral going from 100 to -100. The country had no fiscal plan the banks are stealing the peoples money, the real estate has collapsed, the government built dams and released water to drown out towns to save themselves. Everything is so backwards they build things only to look at them and then they fall. Nothing works, because the mindset on every level is corruption,cheating, and deceit. Once their is a problem they blame others, its just a matter of time the place explodes nothing seems right at the moment.
Hiro S Nobumasa
Well there are the wealthy Hollywood celebrities, health conscious yogis and the people of Alaska that would salivate upon hearing the word safe and yummy Fukushima seafoods.
englisc aspyrgend
Much greater effort needs to be taken in highlighting the radioactive discharges from China's nuclear power stations , not to mention all the other crap they pollute the sea with. We need to be a lot less “diplomatic” in countering Chinese lies. Let the world population know the real figures about their radiological and other pollution.
Every time a Chinese mouthpiece whines on about the discharge don’t just politely disagree, demand that China meet the same radiological standards being complied with for the Fukushima discharges.
nandakandamanda
JT had a good graphic here a couple of days back showing the process through which the once tainted water has to pass.
It looks good on paper, and the IAEA actually on site had no objections, and various organizations are there testing the waters to try and prove TEPCO wrong, so until the system is abused in some way, I'd say let's focus more on China's discharges, as englisc aspyrgend says above.
Mark
I believe China will never win, in fact china better not go to the WTO and open a can of warms.
quercetum
The Japanese Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry puts out a graph that shows volume of tritium discharge Japan Fukushima 22 trillion Bq
France La Hague 11,400 trillion Bq
So what about France? What about China? What about Canada? This is classic whataboutism.
1) nuclear waste water is different from Fukushima’s nuclear contaminated water. Fukushima is Japan’s Chernobyl, same level 7. None of the others had a meltdown or an accident.
2) What Japan is releasing is over 30 years. And more contaminated water is being made as we speak. The shell is broken. Fukushima has not been decommissioned yet. More contaminated water is in its way.
3) There is no precedence ever if nuclear contaminated water being dumped into the ocean.
4) Keep your radioactive contaminated garbage to yourself. Don’t dump it in a public place.
It’s your contaminated water. Treat it and dump it little by little over three decades in Lake Inawashiro in Fukushima prefecture if it is safe.
quercetum
No, China’s economy is growing at a higher percentage than that of the U.S. Moreover, you can judge by actions not by headlines of msm.
The U.S. has Kishida and Moon traveling to the US to pay tribute to Biden.
China has US officials Janet Yellen, John Kerry, Anthony Blinken, Gina Raimondo visiting China like emissaries of a vassal state not to mention Henry Kissinger, Tim Cook and so on.
It’s clear the US is trying to gain favor with Xi.
Strangerland
Heh, someone is drinking the CCP kool-ade!
quercetum
France La Hague plant releases 11,400 trillion Bq. So what?
Japan stated tritium is safe and so what’s with the issue with comparing amounts of safe radionuclides?
China and France are not releasing contaminated water.
Strangerland
Because China is both claiming it's unsafe, while performing the same actions they claim are unsafe.
quercetum
2% of the U.S. economy is less than 5% of the Chinese economy. Do you disagree?
Why are all these US officials visiting China if their economy has tanked?
quercetum
No, actually that’s Japan’s response choosing to compare tritium levels which is irrelevant since it is not harmful.
They are not concerned about tritium but heavy metals, carbon-14, cesium and so on. They don’t trust TEPCO’s credibility based on their past.
Let’s remove the Chinese element to avoid distractions. Do you think the Japanese who protest the release of contaminated water are also doing so for political reasons?
Strangerland
China: Complaining about releasing nuclear wastewater into the oceans
China: Release nuclear wastewater into the oceans.
quercetum
Another attempt to deflect. It is about TEPCO and accepting TEPCO’s data at face value. Has nothing to do with the CPC.
Do you believe TEPCO’s data and claims given its history?
No country has ever dumped a million tones of nuclear contaminated water into the ocean. And
that’s just what TEPCO has now. More content water are on its way as they continue to cool the rods in the broken shell.
quercetum
Nuclear waste water is the one mention by METI but Fukushima’s is contaminated water. There is a difference.
quercetum
There is no precedence of dumping nuclear contaminated water. Japan is the first.
Was there a meltdown at the nuclear plant in China?
Is Fukushima on the same level as Chernobyl?
TaiwanIsNotChina
By its size only. India has the same kind of leverage, particularly now that Chinese growth has slowed. China has to grow at significantly higher rates than the US or it will never get the 4x size it needs to have the same wealth per capita. The BBC is now saying that the CCP has given up on maximizing wealth and instead is focusing on maximizing control.
Strangerland
China is releasing more tritium into the ocean than Fukushima intends:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/aug/25/fukushima-daiichi-nuclear-power-plant-china-wastewater-release
quercetum
I respect India. It will be dominant in 40-50 years.
Back on topic, all the data came from TEPCO, it is monitored by NRA all from Japan. It is not difficult to come out with a perfect sampling by taking the lowest level and ignoring the rest.
At the end of the day, if anything happens, TEPCO is not going to take responsibility. They’ll bow though.
quercetum
Irrelevant. China, France, Canada, the U.S., the UK are releasing water used to cool the reactors.
Fukushima is a Chernobyl level disaster with water coming into contact with the reactors. The water is contaminated.
Japan is the only country in the world to dump nuclear contaminated water into the ocean.
This water is claimed to be treated by TEPCO the company that said it was safe.
quercetum
Finally, I would like to emphasise that the release of the treated water stored at Fukushima Daiichi Power Station is a national decision by the Government of Japan and that this report is neither a recommendation nor an endorsement of that policy.
Rafael Mariano Grossi Director General, IAEA
The IAEA does not endorse or recommend TEPCO’s discharge of nuclear contaminated water into the Pacific Ocean. The report is not an endorsement or a recommendation of that decision.
Why do think this is so?
deanzaZZR
What an embarrassment. Is Rahm trying out for the UN gig? Stay in your lane, Mr. Ambassador.
Strangerland
Does that somehow change that China is releasing more Tritium into the ocean than Fukushima intends?
quercetum
You know it.
Faulty logic. Tritium is safe. Nice try but it’s the other radionuclides.
Has any country ever dumped a million tonnes of nuclear contaminated water in the ocean?
Does Japan know the consequences of such unprecedented act?
Strangerland
Huh? I didn't even state a conclusion, which would be a necessity for there to be logic to be faulty. I just made a statement of fact that China releases more Tritium into the ocean than Fukushima will.
quercetum
Japan says tritium is safe. The issue is Japan is dumping nuclear contaminated and the IAEA does not endorse or recommend this policy, per IAEA Report.
quercetum
You just showed that you do not understand the difference between water used to cool reactors and water that has become contaminated by contacting into contact with the rods.
Your faulty logic leads you to believe that China is releasing nuclear contaminated water into the oceans which is not true.
Strangerland
You're right, I don't, I can only rely on what the scientists say:
They seem to be saying this is ok. I don't claim to know more than the scientists who study this, do you?
Yrral
The greater concentration of radiation,will be off the water of Fukushima
ian
The authority on economic coercion has spoken
kurisupisu
@quercetum
it would be much better if there were fuel rods as that might include some degree of protection.
There aren’t due to the shielding melting exposing the fuel pellets which without cooling became molten and fell to their respective reactor floors
What were fuel rods have now become congealed toxic masses that emit radiation without any control
ian
Tepco has succeeded in focusing and limiting public attention on tritium but it is the least dangerous radionuclide present in the nuclear wastewater.
Is the released wastewater free of all other radionuclides?
nandakandamanda
The wastewater was filtered through an ALPS system and has been sitting in the oldest rusting tanks for over ten years. Presumably sludge has formed on the bottoms of the tanks.
The water will be drained off and filtered again, I think, before being sampled and analyzed, then mixed with large volumes of seawater. This is the dilution process.
The filtered, diluted, checked water is then pumped out to sea where it mixes so that a further dilution takes place.
At this point relatively small traces of Tritium which are well below international limits, remain and have (or some say have not) been detected.
ian
Tritium pose the least problem that's why they are leading people to believe it's the only radionuclide present in the released wastewater.
The iaea report includes at least 27 other radionuclides
ian
Then why hide their presence and mislead the people?
7thPatriarch
Emmanuel keeps taking potshots at China trying to turn Japan against them. Someone needs to remind him that this isn't Israel, we're not trying to surround ourselves with 360 degrees of enemies.
Xi's recent BRICS speech in South Africa mentioned the United Nations, 2030 and sustainable development goals multiple times... they are controlled by the same entity as the United States and the rest of the G7. If their goal is to maneuver the public towards war, then the only solution is peace.
Getting rid of antagonists like Emmanuel out of the country would help. His aren't isolated incidents, behavior like this has resulted in the Jews getting kiked out of 1030 countries since 1200BC.
ian
Are you saying that that report is a report of radionuclide content of the wastewater that was recently released?
ian
Per nhk report;
No mention of the other 27 radionuclides.
ian
Tepco and govt should show that they are monitoring all radionuclides and report actual measurements
ian
But what they are doing is pass off tritium concentration measurements alone as the measure of the nuclear wastewater s safety.
tonyget
Emanuel is pure hypocrite. If Americans love Japanese fish so much,why don't they import fish from Japan?How about let the US buy all those fish rejected by China,if they truly want to help their "ally"?
tonyget
Even Japanese fisheries minister himself calling Fukushima wastewater 'contaminated',how ironic!
elephant200
Yes it was a Chinese coercion and so what, Mr. Emanuel?
China has no obligation to help Japanese military rearming through taking benefits from selling fisherie products to China. The ban is a carpet one that means all Japanese agricultural products not just Fukushima, XI has been waiting quite long to take actions. Is that simple.
The Chinese still eating fisheries but will switch to buy Russian Pacific fisherie products, Russia is a friend of China, she needs our help !
TaiwanIsNotChina
As long as we are clear that China is the Queen of Sanctions now. No longer will there be a word from her about other country's sanctions.