Japan’s plan to release more than 1 million cubic meters — enough to fill 500 Olympic-size swimming pools — of treated radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean as early as this summer has drawn the ire of some of its biggest trading partners.
Perhaps not surprisingly, they’re particularly concerned about food safety.
Mainland China, the top buyer of Japanese seafood, said its Asian neighbor is treating the ocean like a “private sewer” and extended a ban on food imports from Fukushima, the site of the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl.
Public opposition to water release has also emerged in South Korea, where seafood from Fukushima is banned, despite the government backing and reassurance from the International Atomic Energy Agency that it’s in line with global safety standards. Hong Kong is considering extending its ban beyond seafood from Fukushima.
