Korea protests against the IAEA's Fukushima report
A massive earthquake and tsunami
struck Japan on March 11, 2011, destroying the 'Fukushima nuclear power plant'
and damaging the power plant's cooling systems.
'Tokyo Electric Power Company', the
operator of the facility, has since been storing the water used to cool it
down, producing about 100 tons of contaminated water per day.
‘Tokyo Electric Power Company’ in
Japan claims to be using the ‘Advanced Liquid Process System’ (ALPS), which can
treat up to 2,000 tons of water per day, to remove nearly all radioactive
contaminants from the water.
Japan plans to release the treated
radioactive water from the plant into the sea starting this summer over a
period of 30 years.
After the ‘IAEA’ (International Atomic
Energy Agency) gave the green light, it is expected to begin pumping out more
than 1 million tons of the treated water in the coming weeks gradually over the
next several decades.
When 'Rafael Grossi', the director
general of the 'International Atomic Energy Agency' arrived in South Korea on
Friday, he was met with hundreds of angry protesters at ‘Gimpo International
Airport’, with some waving signs chanting “Grossi, go home”, “Grossi, do your
job well” and “IAEA, discard the biased report”.
Fierce protests against 'Rafae Grossy'
continued through a visit to the National Assembly on Sunday.
On Saturday, 'Rafael Grossi' met 'Yoo Guk-hee', head of Korea's ‘Nuclear Safety and Security Commission’ and ‘Foreign Minister’ 'Park Jin' to discuss the issue.
However, the main opposition
‘Democratic Party of Korea’ (DPK) rejected its conclusions on Sunday,
expressing regret over the IAEA's report, claiming it was "tailored for
Japan" and attacking the credibility of the international organization.
But ' Rafael Gross' reiterated the
IAEA's stated position of there being no risk to safety and said "'IAEA'
will continue to monitor the issue".
Meeting directly to ‘IAEA’ Director
General, ‘Rafael Grossi’ at the National Assembly in Seoul, Rep. ‘Woo Won-shik’
accused him of conducting research with a predetermined conclusion".
“If you are so certain that the
Fukushima contaminated water is safe, I wonder if you would consider
recommending the Japanese government to use the wastewater as drinking or
agricultural water domestically” he asked 'Grossi'.
He said during meeting with ‘Rafael Grossi’. "It is very regretful that the ‘IAEA’ made the conclusion without looking into how the water release will affect the neighboring countries in the region".