Japan’s national federation of fisheries cooperatives on Tuesday reiterated its opposition to releasing the contaminated processed water stored in the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the Pacific ocean, after holding a meeting with the government.
The fishermen have opposed the measure as harmful for their economic interests, ever since it was laid out in an agreement between the ministry of industry, economy and commerce and the operator of the disaster-hit plant – the Tokyo Electric Power Company – to resolve the issue of disposing the growing amount of contaminated water at the Fukushima facility.
“We continue to be firmly opposed to the spill,” Hiroshi Kishi, the head of the fisheries federation, told reporters, and said that fishermen should be able to continue working without worries (over the spill).
Kishi held a meeting with the minister of economy, trade and industries, Koichi Haguida, as the latter visited the cooperatives’ headquarters for the first time since the government and TEPCO announced the spill – set to be carried out in spring 2023 – last year.
In the meeting, Haguida stressed the security guarantees for human health and environment that the government has pledged for the water being released into the Pacific, with the radioactivity levels expected to be below the threshold fixed by the World Health Organization for drinking water…