By Lucy Cramer
WELLINGTON (Reuters) – New Zealand Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta told the head of the UN nuclear watchdog on Monday that her government had full confidence in the IAEA’s advice on the planned discharge of treated water in Fukushima.
“I also felt it was important to draw attention to the Pacific’s traumatic experience with nuclear testing and directly requested that meaningful engagement continue with the Pacific region on the proposed release “, she said in a statement after the meeting with Rafael Grossi, the general manager. of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
After a two-year review, the IAEA has said Japan’s plans to release some 500 Olympic-sized pools of water from the Fukushimi plant destroyed by a tsunami more than a decade ago met the standards of world security and would have a “negligible impact”. the radiological impact on people and the environment”.
After the report was released, Grossi traveled to South Korea. He is currently in New Zealand before traveling to the Cook Islands where he will meet Pacific Islands Forum Chair and Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown.
The Pacific Islands Forum, a regional bloc of 17 island nations, has raised significant concerns about the release of water, fearing among other things the impact on fisheries.
Mahuta said New Zealand fully understood the effects of nuclear testing on its Pacific neighbors in the past, and that the government would continue to press for the release of water to be addressed through transparency and meaningful dialogue.
(Reporting by Lucy Craymer; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Lincoln Feast.)