Park Ku-yeon (C), the first deputy chief of the Office for Government Policy Coordination, holds a press briefing at the government complex in Seoul on June 15, 2023. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, June 15 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea plans to soon finalize its own analysis of contaminated water from Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant before the neighboring country begins to discharge it into sea, the chief of the country’s nuclear safety watchdog said Thursday.
“We are speeding up the analysis … and we will finalize it before the discharge (of contaminated water),” Nuclear Safety and Security Commission Chairperson Yoo Guk-hee told lawmakers.
Last month, a team of South Korean experts conducted an inspection of the plant to check if the radioactive water can be treated to be safe enough.
The inspection was in line with a summit agreement between President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
After the inspection, the team said meaningful progress was achieved but additional analysis is needed for a more accurate conclusion.
The team is currently reviewing additional data provided by Japan, particularly analyzing information regarding the custom purification system known as the ALPS.
Addressing a recent media report that more than 20,000 times the international standard of strontium, a radioactive substance, was detected in the water even after ALPS treatment, the Korean government reassured that Japan has a policy to treat the radioactive water until it meets international standards.
A group of South Korean experts from the government task-force, meanwhile, said the concentration of tritium, a radioisotope of hydrogen, released from the plant is not expected to pose any risk to human health.
The ALPS is capable of removing all radioactive materials from the wastewater except tritium, which is also naturally generated in the atmosphere.
Tokyo has argued that the dumping of tritium-added water is a common practice in nuclear plants around the globe.
“Even in consideration of uncertainties, it would be difficult to think that the tritium released from the marine tunnel would be of a level that could impact our health,” said Huh Gyoon-young, a nuclear engineering professor at Kyunghee University.
Meanwhile, the Korean government launched a daily press briefing to keep the public updated on the planned release of contaminated water from the Fukushima nuclear plant.
“We will closely monitor the process and provide explanations (to the public) regarding any unusual occurrences,” said Park Ku-yeon, the first deputy chief of the Office for Government Policy Coordination.
Park also clarified that the trial operation is limited to several components, such as the marine tunnel and various pipes, rather than the entire discharge equipment.
(Yonhap)
