April 5, 2011
SEOUL (AFP) - South Korea has expressed concern to Japan about its pumping of radioactive water into the ocean to help stabilise a crippled nuclear plant, a report said Tuesday.
Japan on Monday started to dump more than 10,000 tons of low-level radioactive water into the Pacific to make space for run-off from water used to douse overheating fuel rods at its Fukushima plant.
A massive earthquake and tsunami on March 11 shut down cooling systems at Fukushima, causing fuel rods to overheat dangerously.
Seoul's embassy in Tokyo on Monday conveyed concern that the dumping of radioactive water might be in breach of international laws, Yonhap news agency quoted unidentified South Korean foreign ministry officials as saying.
"It's the proximity between the two countries that makes Japan's release of radioactive water a pressing issue for us," one official was quoted as saying.
A foreign ministry spokesman declined to comment on the report.
"For now, we have no clear standards to determine how much is how bad for us," another foreign ministry official told Yonhap. "We're working with scientific and legal experts to come up with a clear guideline."
Tokyo Electric Power Company, operator of the disaster-stricken plant, said the release of the water -- the equivalent of more than four Olympic-sized swimming pools -- would not harm marine life or seafood safety.
But the operation fuelled concern in neighbouring South Korea, where traces of airborne radioactive material had earlier been detected. These were said to be too minuscule to pose health risks.
