Japan started releasing treated radioactive water from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean on Thursday, a polarising move that prompted China to announce an immediate blanket ban on all aquatic products from Japan.
China is “highly concerned about the risk of radioactive contamination brought by… Japan’s food and agricultural products,” the customs bureau said in a statement.
The Japanese government signed off on the plan two years ago and it was given a green light by the U.N. nuclear watchdog last month. The discharge is a key step in decommissioning the Fukushima Daiichi plant after it was destroyed by a tsunami in 2011.
China having the audacity to take a stance on this while taishan has been leaking since 2020 is easily the funniest fucking thing I’ve seen all year. For anyone uneducated in the matter of radiochemistry, the water from fukushima is more well treated than the water that comes out of Canadian or American reactors from regular use.
At the very least people should be forced to read the IAEA report before being allowed an opinion on something they clearly do not understand, especially when disingenuous garbage information is being spread around by malicious actors and bots.
IAEA report for reference: https://www.iaea.org/sites/default/files/iaea_comprehensive_alps_report.pdf
This is standard geopolitical bullshit. They wanted to ban seafood imports from Japan and this is a good excuse. Radiation is easily detected. It’s not like they would be taking some unpredictable , unknowable risk here. The radiation contamination risk isn’t the point at all.
It’s the same as the international beef market. A cow falls over in Alberta somewhere and suddenly 5 countries ban Canadian beef imports across the board. The reason they give is “because of the possibility of mad cow” but the truth is they’re constantly looking for an excuse to issue protectionist measures .