Japan says harassing calls from China over Fukushima water release 'extremely regrettable' - CNA

TOKYO: Japan said on Monday (Aug 28) it was extremely regrettable that there were many instances of harassing phone calls from China regarding the release of treated radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant into the Pacific.

Japan started the water discharge on Thursday in a key step toward decommissioning the Fukushima plant, which suffered triple meltdowns after being hit by a tsunami in 2011 following a powerful earthquake. China strongly opposes the move.

"A lot of harassment phone calls believed to be originating from China are occurring in Japan ... These developments are extremely regrettable and we are concerned," Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno, the chief government spokesman, told a regular news conference.

Such calls prompted vice foreign minister Masataka Okano to summon the Chinese ambassador, Japan's foreign ministry said.

In a statement, the ministry said the calls were also occurring at Japanese facilities in China and urged the government to take appropriate action promptly and ensure the safety of Japanese citizens.

China's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Fukushima city hall started receiving calls with country code 86, which is for China, on Thursday, and the number of such calls exceeded 200 the following day, flooding phone lines and disrupting city employees' ordinary work, a city official said.

On the same day, elementary and junior high schools in the city, 60km north-west of the crippled plant, received 65 similar calls, he said.

When a person who understands Chinese took one of those calls, the caller made a comment to the effect that, "Why are you releasing tainted water into the Pacific Ocean, which is a sea for everyone," the official said.

Other municipalities, hotels and restaurants have also been getting such calls since the day the water release began, domestic media said.

In China, a rock was thrown at a Japanese school in the coastal city of Qingdao on Thursday, according to the Consulate-General of Japan in the city.

"We have been speaking to the city police constantly since this incident took place regarding security concerns," the Consulate-General told Reuters on Monday.

Fukushima plant operator Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) has been filtering the contaminated water to remove isotopes, leaving only tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen that is hard to separate.

Tepco dilutes the water until tritium levels fall below regulatory limits before pumping it into the sea.

China, however, said the Japanese government had not proved that the water discharged would be safe and issued a blanket ban on all aquatic products from Japan hours after Tokyo went ahead with the release.

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2023-08-28 07:12:16Z
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China-Dependent Japan Stocks Plunge on Boycott Over Wastewater - Bloomberg

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1. China-Dependent Japan Stocks Plunge on Boycott Over Wastewater  Bloomberg
2. Japan hopes to win the world's trust over Fukushima with hard science, objective facts  The Straits Times
3. Speak quietly in China, Japan warns citizens as Fukushima backlash grows  South China Morning Post
4. At Fukushima Daiichi, decommissioning the nuclear plant is far more challenging than water release  CNA
5. John Lee: Hong Kong pays attention to threat of Japan's radioactive wastewater discharge  New Straits Times
6. View Full coverage on Google News

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2023-08-28 04:53:34Z
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Japan hopes to win the world's trust over Fukushima with hard science, objective facts - The Straits Times

FUKUSHIMA – Japan wants to win the world’s trust that it is doing the right thing – neither wilfully poisoning the Pacific Ocean nor trying to pull the wool over people’s eyes regarding the safety of its seafood with its treated nuclear wastewater release.

On Sunday, The Straits Times was among the first media outlets – domestic and foreign – to visit the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant since the discharge began three days earlier, in a process that will end with its full decommissioning only in 2051.

As at 5pm on Sunday (4pm Singapore time), 76 hours after the gates were opened, operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) had released 1,420 tonnes of water that had been treated to remove radioactive materials except tritium.

Also on Sunday, Japan said tests of seawater off the coast did not detect any radioactivity. A day earlier, inspections of fish samples from waters near the plant also found no detectable traces of tritium, a hydrogen isotope that most scientists say is harmless and naturally discharged without accumulating in the body.

Tepco has even successfully used the water, cleansed by a process known as the Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS), to breed healthy flounder, abalone and seaweed.

Yet, the blowback has been swift since the discharge began. China imposed a blanket ban on all Japanese seafood, while Hong Kong and Macau stiffened restrictions in what Japanese newspaper editorials have lambasted as “economic coercion”.

These regions are a minority, among only nine to have retained import restrictions since the March 11, 2011 disaster. But they hit Japan where it hurts: China accounted for 22.5 per cent and Hong Kong, 19.5 per cent, of seafood imports in 2022, the annual Fisheries White Paper said.

And even where their governments have not imposed bans, leery consumers in the region, including in Singapore, have also vowed to steer clear of seafood from Japan, at least for now.

To counter these narratives, United States Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel, who is due to visit Fukushima this week, said he would “eat local fish” – just as the late prime minister Shinzo Abe made Fukushima rice a daily staple to prove a point.

Amid the brouhaha, water was being discharged as planned at Tepco’s Fukushima Daiichi plant – a drab coastal compound of six nuclear reactors – on Sunday, with the audible sounds of seawater gushing in through large pipes to be used for dilution. Much has changed since this reporter’s last visit in 2018, with more than 1,000 giant water tanks now dotting the site.

In total, 1.34 million tonnes of wastewater has accumulated, and the pressing lack of space has been a major obstacle to dismantling the plant. Just 380 of the 1,000 cherry blossoms trees that turn the facility pink in spring remain, the rest axed over contamination and the need to make space for tanks.

In the clearest sign that decontamination was progressing, protective gowns were no longer necessary over clothing, though masks and gloves were mandatory. The radiation dose during the six-hour media visit, as per the reading on my dosimeter, was less than that one would have received during a dental X-ray, according to Japan’s National Institutes for Quantum and Radiological Science and Technology.

Yet Japan and Tepco, despite sound scientific evidence in their favour as endorsed by the neutral International Atomic Energy Agency, are struggling to shape the narrative, dampen the water-cooler talk and stamp out fake news.

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2023-08-27 15:23:00Z
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Russia's investigators confirm Wagner mercenary chief Prigozhin died in plane crash - The Straits Times

MOSCOW – Russia’s Investigative Committee said on Sunday the results of genetic tests confirmed the identities of the 10 people who died in a plane crash last Wednesday, and that they included Wagner mercenary group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin.

Russia’s aviation agency previously published the names of all 10 people on board the private jet that crashed in the Tver region north-west of Moscow. They included Mr Prigozhin and Mr Dmitry Utkin, his right-hand man who helped found the Wagner group.

“As part of the investigation of the plane crash in the Tver region, molecular-genetic examinations have been completed,” the investigative committee said in a statement on its site on the Telegram messaging app.

“According to their results, the identities of all 10 victims were established, they correspond to the list stated in the flight list,” the committee added.

Western politicians and commentators have suggested, without presenting evidence, that the plane appeared to have been downed on the orders of Russian President Vladimir Putin, as revenge for Mr Prigozhin’s aborted mutiny two months ago.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said such suggestions were an “absolute lie”.

Mr Prigozhin had sent a column of mercenaries towards Moscow in an attempt to oust the leadership of the Defence Ministry.

Mr Putin described that mutiny as a treacherous “stab in the back”, but later met with Mr Prigozhin at the Kremlin.

He sent his condolences last Thursday to the families of those the aviation agency said died in the crash.

Asked whether Mr Putin might attend Mr Prigozhin’s funeral, Mr Peskov said it was too early to say and also noted the President’s “busy schedule”.

Wagner fighters played a prominent role in the fighting in eastern Ukraine, especially in the months-long siege of the city of Bakhmut, despite Mr Prigozhin’s frequent, profanity-laced attacks on Russia’s military high command over their conduct of the war that culminated in the failed mutiny.

The Wagner fighters have now left Ukraine, and some have relocated to neighbouring Belarus under the terms of a deal that ended their mutiny.

Some are expected to be absorbed into Russia’s armed forces, but many will be angry over the sudden demise of the group’s founder, who inspired a high degree of loyalty among his men.

Mr Putin paid a mixed tribute to Mr Prigozhin on Thursday, describing him as a “talented businessman” but also as a flawed character who “made serious mistakes in life”.

However, his comments did little to stem rising questions and anger over Mr Prigozhin’s death, with makeshift memorials to the mercenary leader springing up across Russian cities.

“He was killed,” said one man outside a makeshift memorial in Moscow.

“He was killed by his enemies. We won’t say who. The investigation will reveal. But we hope that revenge will catch up with those who committed this crime,” he added. REUTERS, AFP

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2023-08-27 11:05:36Z
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Myanmar expels top Timor-Leste diplomat - CNA

BANGKOK: Myanmar's junta on Sunday (Aug 27) ordered the expulsion of Timor-Leste's top diplomat in the country over a meeting his government held with a banned shadow administration.

The Southeast Asian nation has been locked in crisis since the military seized power in February 2021, ending a brief experiment with democracy and sparking violent clashes.

The military has designated the shadow administration known as the National Unity Government (NUG) - dominated by exiled lawmakers working overseas to overturn the coup - as a terror organisation.

Last month, Timor-Leste's President Jose Ramos-Horta met with NUG foreign minister Zin Mar Aung in the capital Dili.

On Sunday, Myanmar's Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the "irresponsible actions" of Timor-Leste, ordering the country's Charge d'Affaires in Yangon "to leave no later than Sep 1, 2023".

The ministry said in a Facebook post that Timor-Leste was "encouraging the terrorist group to further committing their violations in Myanmar".

Timor-Leste condemned the expulsion order, reiterating in a statement "the importance of supporting all efforts for the return of democratic order in Myanmar".

Dili also urged the junta to "respect human rights and seek a peaceful and constructive solution to the crisis".

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2023-08-27 09:59:00Z
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Japan reports wave of Chinese phone harassment after Fukushima discharge - CNA

Tokyo's embassy in Beijing has separately urged its nationals there to refrain from speaking loudly in Japanese.

A Fukushima businessperson told the Kyodo news agency that his four restaurants and pastry shops received a total of about 1,000 calls on Friday, mostly from China.

His businesses had to unplug their phones, Kyodo said.

Fukushima city mayor Hiroshi Kohata said in a Facebook post Saturday that the city hall had received around 200 similar calls in two days, while local schools, restaurants and hotels also became targets.

"I will report this to the Japanese government and demand action," he wrote in his post.

Chinese social media users shared videos of themselves making calls to Japanese numbers, including restaurants in Fukushima.

TEPCO is releasing more than 500 Olympic swimming pools' worth of wastewater used to cool Fukushima's damaged reactors, three of which went into meltdown in March 2011 when they were hit by a massive earthquake and tsunami that killed about 18,000 people.

The water has been filtered of all radioactive elements except for tritium.

The Japanese environment ministry said Sunday that a fresh test of Fukushima coastal water showed no elevated levels of tritium.

The ministry added that the water samples did not show signs of gamma radiation that can come from other radioactive materials such as caesium.

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2023-08-27 06:23:28Z
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At Fukushima Daiichi, decommissioning the nuclear plant is far more challenging than water release - CNA

WILL THE WASTEWATER RELEASE PUSH DECOMMISSIONING FORWARD?

Not right away, because the water release is slow and the decommissioning is making little progress. TEPCO says it plans to release 31,200 tonnes of treated water by the end of March 2024, which would empty only 10 tanks out of 1,000 because of the continued production of wastewater at the plant.

The pace will later pick up, and about one-third of the tanks will be removed over the next 10 years, freeing up space for the plant's decommissioning, said TEPCO executive Junichi Matsumoto, who is in charge of the treated water release.

He says the water would be released gradually over the span of 30 years, but as long as the melted fuel stays in the reactors, it requires cooling water, which creates more wastewater.

Emptied tanks also need to be scrapped for storage. Highly radioactive sludge, a byproduct of filtering at the treatment machine, also is a concern.

WHAT CHALLENGES ARE AHEAD?

About 880 tonnes of fatally radioactive melted nuclear fuel remain inside the reactors. Robotic probes have provided some information but the status of the melted debris remains largely unknown.

Earlier this year, a remote-controlled underwater vehicle successfully collected a tiny sample from inside Unit 1’s reactor — only a spoonful of the melted fuel debris in the three reactors. That’s 10 times the amount of damaged fuel removed at Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island cleanup following its 1979 partial core melt.

Trial removal of melted debris using a giant remote-controlled robotic arm will begin in Unit 2 later this year after a nearly two-year delay. Spent fuel removal from Unit 1 reactor’s cooling pool is set to start in 2027 after a 10-year delay. Once all the spent fuel is removed, the focus will turn in 2031 to taking melted debris out of the reactors. But debris removal methods for two other reactors have not been decided.

Matsumoto says “technical difficulty involving the decommissioning is much higher” than the water release and involves higher risks of exposures by plant workers to remove spent fuel or melted fuel.

“Measures to reduce radiation exposure risks by plant workers will be increasingly difficult,” Matsumoto said. “Reduction of exposure risks is the basis for achieving both Fukushima's recovery and decommissioning.”

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2023-08-27 03:53:47Z
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