Municipalities and fishermen in the Tohoku region are vehemently opposed to Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s plan to release contaminated water from the Fukushima No. 2 nuclear power plant.
Municipalities and fishermen in the Tohoku region are vehemently opposed to Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s plan to release contaminated water from the Fukushima No. 2 nuclear power plant.
They say the fishing industry is finally starting to recover from the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami, but cannot resume coastal fishing because of the ongoing crisis at TEPCO's Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
A discharge of radioactive water from the No. 2 plant would only fuel fears and rumors of contaminated marine products, they said.
TEPCO plans to discharge about 3,000 tons of seawater at the No. 2 plant--which straddles Naraha and Tomioka in Fukushima Prefecture--into the sea after lowering the radiation level below the safety standard to the same level as the company discharge during its normal plant operations.
The water is believed to contain rust and other substances contaminated with low levels of radiation.
The utility said it needs to discharge the water because the salt will likely corrode a storage tank holding the water.
The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said as long as the water's radiation level is below the safety standard, TEPCO will not have a legal problem discharging the water.
But the agency urged the company to keep the water on its premises unless local municipalities give their consent to the discharge.
Junichi Matsumoto, a senior official at TEPCO's nuclear power section, said the company has not made a final decision on the water release. It will explain the situation to area residents while considering alternatives, he said.
Katsuya Endo, the mayor of Tomioka, said TEPCO has yet to notify the town of the plan.
Endo demanded that TEPCO talk to local municipalities before making a decision and explain how much water it plans to release and if other options are available.
Tetsu Nozaki, chairman of the Fukushima prefectural fishing association, said the water release could pose an immense roadblock to the rebuilding process. He also said the association is currently investigating the effects of the Fukushima No. 1 plant crisis on seawater and fish.
The expected water release has stirred concerns in the Onahama port of Iwaki, about 40 kilometers south of the No. 2 plant.
Fishermen there will reopen its fish market on June 16, and their bonito fishing boats are operating for the first time since the March 11 earthquake.
In Kita-Ibaraki, Ibaraki Prefecture, Mayor Minoru Toyoda sent a letter of protest to TEPCO on June 9, stating the water-release plan does not take into account the sentiments of area residents.
Nobutaka Tsutsui, the vice fishery minister, said the same day that since the seawater still contains low levels of radiation from the release of water from the No. 1 plant, a second discharge of water will likely fuel harmful rumors.
(This article was written by Yuki Takayama, Hiroaki Kojima and Takemichi Nishibori.)