TOKYO: The UN nuclear watchdog chief arrives in Japan on Tuesday for a trip that will include his first visit to storage facilities for soil contaminated in the 2011 Fukushima disaster.
It is the fifth official visit to the country by Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The organization is monitoring the decades-long process to decommission the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, which went into meltdown after being hit by a tsunami in the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.
Workers at the wrecked plant on Japan’s northeast coast last week began dismantling wastewater storage tanks to free up space for tons of nuclear debris.
Grossi will tour the site on Wednesday, and will also be shown the contaminated soil that the government is currently discussing how to handle.
After the disaster, about 13 million cubic meters of soil and about 300,000 cubic meters of ash from the incineration of organic material was removed from the wider Fukushima region, as part of decontamination efforts.
For comparison, the Tokyo Dome arena, where US pop superstar Taylor Swift performed last year, has a capacity of 1.24 million cubic meters.
The soil is being kept at interim storage facilities, over a total area of 16 square kilometers (six square miles).
Japan plans to recycle roughly 75 percent of the removed soil — the portion found to have low radioactivity levels.
If this material is confirmed safe, authorities want to use it for civil engineering projects, including building embankments for roads and railways, the government and the IAEA say.
The remaining soil will be disposed of outside Fukushima region ahead of a 2045 deadline.
The government has said it intends to confirm the disposal site this year, with Fukushima’s regional governor reportedly urging them to come up with a plan quickly.
“Japan’s approach for recycling and disposing of soil and radioactive waste from decontamination activities... is consistent with IAEA safety standards,” the IAEA said in September in its final report on the soil issue.
The Fukushima plant was hit by a huge earthquake-triggered tsunami in March 2011 that killed 18,000 people.
The most dangerous part of the complex Fukushima plant clean-up — removing around 880 tons of radioactive fuel and rubble from three stricken reactors — has only just begun, with one tiny sample removed by a robotic claw.
During Grossi’s visit, experts from the IAEA and neighboring countries including China and South Korea will also take seawater and fish samples “to further increase the transparency” of the process of releasing treated wastewater into the sea, an official from Japan’s energy agency said.
Plant operator TEPCO in August 2023 began discharging 1.3 million tons of collected groundwater, seawater and rainwater, along with water used for cooling the reactors.
The water release has been endorsed by the IAEA, and TEPCO says all radioactive elements have been filtered out except for tritium, levels of which are within safe limits.
But countries including China and Russia have criticized the release and banned Japanese seafood imports over safety concerns.
China in September said it would “gradually resume” importing seafood from Japan but this has yet to begin.
UN nuclear chief to view soil removed from Fukushima
https://arab.news/p5kqt
UN nuclear chief to view soil removed from Fukushima
UN’s top court opens Myanmar Rohingya genocide case
- The Gambia filed a case against Myanmar at the UN’s top court in 2019
- Verdict expected to impact Israel’s genocide case over war on Gaza
DHAKA: The International Court of Justice on Monday opened a landmark case accusing Myanmar of genocide against its mostly Muslim Rohingya minority.
The Gambia filed a case against Myanmar at the UN’s top court in 2019, two years after a military offensive forced hundreds of thousands of Rohingya from their homes into neighboring Bangladesh.
The hearings will last three weeks and conclude on Jan. 29.
“The ICJ must secure justice for the persecuted Rohingya. This process should not take much longer, as we all know that justice delayed is justice denied,” said Asma Begum, who has been living in the Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district since 2017.
A mostly Muslim ethnic minority, the Rohingya have lived for centuries in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state but were stripped of their citizenship in the 1980s and have faced systemic persecution ever since.
In 2017 alone, some 750,000 of them fled military atrocities and crossed to Bangladesh, in what the UN has called a textbook case of ethnic cleansing by Myanmar.
Today, about 1.3 million Rohingya shelter in 33 camps in Cox’s Bazar, turning the coastal district into the world’s largest refugee settlement.
“We experienced horrific acts such as arson, killings and rape in 2017, and fled to Bangladesh,” Begum told Arab News.
“I believe the ICJ verdict will pave the way for our repatriation to our homeland. The world should not forget us.”
A UN fact-finding mission has concluded that the Myanmar 2017 offensive included “genocidal acts” — an accusation rejected by Myanmar, which said it was a “clearance operation” against militants.
Now, there is hope for justice and a new future for those who have been displaced for years.
“We also have the right to live with dignity. I want to return to my homeland and live the rest of my life in my ancestral land. My children will reconnect with their roots and be able to build their own future,” said Syed Ahmed, who fled Myanmar in 2017 and has since been raising his four children in the Kutupalong camp.
“Despite the delay, I am optimistic that the perpetrators will be held accountable through the ICJ verdict. It will set a strong precedent for the world.”
The Myanmar trial is the first genocide case in more than a decade to be taken up by the ICJ. The outcome will also impact the genocide case that Israel is facing over its war on Gaza.
“The momentum of this case at the ICJ will send a strong message to all those (places) around the world where crimes against humanity have been committed,” Nur Khan, a Bangladeshi lawyer and human rights activist, told Arab News.
“The ICJ will play a significant role in ensuring justice regarding accusations of genocide in other parts of the world, such as the genocide and crimes against humanity committed by Israel against the people of Gaza.”
