Taiwan’s Cabinet says it is concerned about Japan’s decision to dump one million tons of wastewater leftover from the Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean. The plant went into nuclear meltdown after the devastating 2011 Tohoku earthquake. Japanese authorities flooded the plant with water to cool down the nuclear fuel. Japan approved releasing the contaminated water into the ocean on Tuesday.
Cabinet Spokesperson Lo Ping-cheng says the government has voiced its concerns to Japan’s government. He says both the foreign ministry and Taiwan’s representative office in Japan have conveyed environmental and safety concerns to their Japanese counterparts.
Lo says that Taiwan’s Atomic Energy Council has also sent a letter to the Japanese government opposing its decision. The council asked the Japanese government to provide a report on how the move will impact surrounding waters.
Lo says that Japan shouldn’t dump the wastewater until it can address the concerns of surrounding countries.