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A member of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War Germany poses for a photo during the organization’s protest in Berlin to condemn the Japanese government’s decision to release radioactive water from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. (Yonhap News)

Seventy American civic groups have written a letter voicing their opposition to Japan’s plan to release radioactive water from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant into the ocean.

A South Korean group called Joint Action to Prevent Japan’s Release of Radioactive Water (Joint Action, for short) announced Tuesday that the Manhattan Project for a Nuclear-Free World and other civic groups had sent the letter to Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry via the Japanese consulate in New York and the Japanese delegation to the UN on June 5 to mark World Environment Day, as well as World Oceans Day, which falls on June 8.

In their letter, the civic groups made eight demands to the Japanese government. Their demands are as follows: to retract its decision to release the radioactive water at Fukushima into the ocean, to canvass opposition to releasing the water in Japan and the international community, to stop using the misleading phrase “treated water,” to devise alternatives such as building more storage tanks, to admit to the international community that the Advanced Liquid Processing System cannot remove radioactive materials, to acknowledge the danger of tritium, to transparently release all the information about the contaminated water and the plant where the accident occurred, and to hold regular hearings and guarantee the participation of experts and civic groups.

While Japan isn’t close to the US, American civic groups are condemning the Japanese government’s decision as South Korean environmental groups have done because the contaminated water could be brought by currents in the North Pacific Ocean to the west coast of Canada and the US.

The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) concluded in 2013 that Cesium-137 released during the Fukushima nuclear accident would reach South Korean waters in four or five years, after following ocean currents north in a circle around the North Pacific Ocean.

KAERI also said that the radionuclides would be so widely diluted over that period of time that their concentration would not be detectable. But environmental groups have underlined that the safety issue hasn’t been completely resolved because the total amount of radioactive material doesn’t change.

Joint Action is a coalition that was formed on May 26, after the Japanese government decided to release contaminated water from Fukushima in April. The coalition represents a wide range of interests, including various regions, consumers’ cooperatives, religious groups, organized labor, the fishing industry, and civic society.

“This letter shows that groups not only in Asia but also in the US are showing solidarity with the opposition voiced by Korean environmental groups,” said Song Ju-hee, an energy and climate activist with the Korea Federation for Environmental Movements who is part of Joint Action.

The Manhattan Project for a Nuclear-Free World, which was established in Manhattan, New York, in March 2012, is a nonprofit organization engaged in various activities for the abolition of nuclear power and nuclear weapons. The group’s members are experts, lawyers, and others concerned about the dangers and humanitarian impact of nuclear technology.

By Choi Woo-ri, staff reporter

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