The International Atomic Energy Agency said Friday it will conduct a sampling of the marine environment near the wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant from next week with international experts including those from China.
China, a staunch opponent of the discharge of treated radioactive water from the power complex into the sea, imposed a blanket ban on seafood imports from Japan immediately after the discharge started in August last year. Meanwhile, the Japanese government has repeatedly urged Beijing to repeal the ban.
The environment monitoring and assessment activities will be carried out from Monday to Oct 15 by a team of IAEA scientists and experts from laboratories in China, South Korea and Switzerland.
The international experts will provide independent corroboration of Japan's environmental monitoring capabilities in the mission, during which samples of seawater and marine sediment, fish and seaweed will be taken.
Japan and China agreed last month that seafood imports from Japan will resume, contingent on participation in monitoring activities with expanded roles for experts from third-party countries, including China, under the IAEA framework.
The Japanese Foreign Ministry said discussions continue with the IAEA on participation of the Chinese in sampling and analysis based on the agreement, and that they are likely to join the expanded capacity of monitoring activities on different occasions.
In August last year, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc began the discharge of wastewater, processed through an advanced liquid processing system to remove most contaminants, except for the relatively nontoxic tritium, into the sea from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant that was left damaged in the 2011 quake and tsunami disaster.
The IAEA earlier confirmed that the tritium concentrations in ALPS treated water were far below operational limits.
