Environmental concerns were high on the list of issues to be addressed at the recent three-day Pacific Islands Conference of Leaders, held in Honolulu from 12 to 14 September with Japan’s decision to release up to 1.25 million tons of water from the Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean one of the most pressing concerns.
That is a position shared by many of Japan’s neighbours in Asia, with the governments of China, Russia, Taiwan and both North and South Korea expressing their opposition to the plan to dump water contaminated with radioactivity after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami into the ocean.
The water became contaminated with radiation when it was used to cool three of the six reactors at the plant that suffered meltdowns after being damaged in the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Groundwater is also seeping into the basement levels of the reactor buildings, with an additional 120 tons of water accumulating every day.