22-05-2025
UN rapporteurs cite 'uncertainty' over long term affects of treated nuclear waste water
The UN Human Rights Council says the release of treated wastewater from the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean may pose major environmental and human rights risks to people in Japan and beyond.
The concerns are raised in a letter written to the Japanese government in March, which was recently publicly released on the Council's website.
Jointly written by several human rights rapporteurs, they express alarm at the radioactive material contained in the wastewater the increasing amount of wastewater to be released and that other less harmful alternatives were not considered.
'The letters are a tool fo bringing concerns to the Japanese Government,' said Dr Marcus Orellana, special rapporteur on human rights.
"The Japanese Government says that the waters have been treated to the point that they satisfy regulatory limits, but some of the information with recieved from rapporteurs is that those regulatory limits are inadequate," he added.
"We know is that there is uncertainty."
