South Korea's opposition leader to reach out to world leaders against Japan's Fukushima water release

By Anadolu staff

ANKARA (AA) - South Korea's opposition leader on Sunday said he will send letters to leaders of 88 countries that are signatories to an international convention on maritime pollution as part of his ongoing campaign against Japan's Fukushima water release.

“The international community should step up to correct Japan's clear violation of international laws," Lee Jae-myung, leader of the country's main opposition Democratic Party, said at a press conference at the National Assembly, according to the Seoul-based Yonhap News Agency.

According to Lee, the discharge of treated radioactive water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant into the ocean runs counter to the London Convention.

The London Convention, which has been in force since 1975, is meant to promote the effective control of all sources of marine pollution and to take steps to prevent marine pollution by the dumping of waste and other matter.

The South Korean government backs Japan's plan to release the treated water into the Pacific Ocean.

Ignoring opposition from fishing communities and neighboring China, Japan last month began releasing treated nuclear waste from the crippled Fukushima power plant into the sea.

In the first phase, the operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) will dilute around 7,800 tons of the treated water with seawater and the diluted water will be released over 17 consecutive days.

The whole process could take at least 30 years to complete.

The TEPCO has already filled a facility, which is called a discharge vertical shaft, with the treated and diluted water.

Each ton of treated water is mixed with about 1,200 tons of seawater.

There are some 1.3 million tons of treated water at the TEPCO complex and the operator is running out of storage capacity which has forced Japan to release the water into the ocean.

TEPCO has planned to release around 31,200 tons of the water, contained in 30 tanks, this year.

International Atomic Energy Agency has said the release of the nuclear waste would have “negligible radiological impact on people and the environment” but refused to endorse Tokyo’s decision.

In March 2011, a magnitude 9.0 earthquake triggered a tsunami that struck out the backup electric supply at the power plant on Japan’s northeastern Pacific coast, leading to meltdowns in three of its reactors.