SEOUL (Reuters) – The head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog will meet South Korea’s foreign minister and a senior nuclear security official on Saturday in a bid to allay fears over the project. Japan to discharge treated radioactive water from its Fukushima tsunami plant.
Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), arrived in South Korea on Friday after concluding a trip to Japan, during which the watchdog approved the sewage disposal plan of the Fukushima nuclear power plant in the ocean.
His arrival was greeted by protesters at Seoul’s Gimpo airport, local media reported.
Before that, Grossi told a Friday press conference in Japan that he also wanted to meet with the opposition party in South Korea which has criticized the discharge plan.
South Korea’s government said on Friday it respected the IAEA report and that its own analysis had found the release would have “no significant impact” on its waters.
President Yoo Suk Yeol’s administration has toed a fine line in its stance on Japan’s discharge proposal as it tries to improve relations with Tokyo. But the plan has sparked anger and concern among South Koreans, prompting some shoppers to buy sea salt.
Despite South Korea’s assent to the plan, a ban on food and seafood from the Fukushima region would remain in place.
Opposition Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung also said the government should try to stop the plan and take the case to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea.
(Reporting by Hyunsu Yim; Editing by Richard Chang)