Residents in South Korea have been hoarding sea salt and other items as worry surrounding their safety grows against the backdrop of Japan preparing to dump wastewater into the Pacific Ocean.
Contamination Fears
While no date for the release has been announced yet, Japan is expected to soon release more than 1 million metric tonnes of treated radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant, damaged by a tsunami in 2011.
The water, which was mainly used to cool damaged reactors at the plant following the incident, has raised fears of contamination among residents in littoral states, such as South Korea and China, despite Japan’s many reassurances of the plan’s safety.
Tokyo has clarified that the water has been filtered to remove the most harmful isotopes, though it does contain trace amounts of tritium — an isotope of hydrogen difficult to separate from water molecules.
While this revelation has made several governments anxious, experts have dismissed these fears, positing that tritium is the least radioactive and least harmful of all radioactive elements.
The Director General of @iaeaorg @rafaelmgrossi will travel to 🇯🇵 #Japan next week to present the comprehensive findings of the #IAEA’s safety review of Japan’s plan to release treated water from the #Fukushima Daiichi plant into the sea.https://t.co/4HEvzeUoAy pic.twitter.com/1ADUn7vXjM
— IAEA - International Atomic Energy Agency ⚛️ (@iaeaorg) June 30, 2023
Salt Prices Soaring
However, fishermen and shoppers in Japan and across the region are afraid, which has spurred the hoarding.
Salt hoarding in South Korea has resulted in the commodity’s price rising by nearly 27% over the last two months. Officials claim that the rise is also attributed to weather and lower production.
In response to the issue, Vice Fisheries Minister Song Sang-keun announced on Wednesday that Seoul is releasing about 50 metric tonnes of salt per day from its stocks, at a 20% discount from market prices, until 11 July.
Fishery authorities in the country have also said that they will keep a close eye on salt farms for any rise in radioactivity.
Moreover, South Korea has banned seafood from the waters near Fukushima, located on Japan’s east coast.