Three reactors at the facility had meltdowns following a major earthquake on March 11, 2011, and work to clean up the radioactive contamination is continuing.
University of Otago Centre for Sustainability research fellow Dr Karly Burch said many people might be surprised to hear the Japanese government had approved Tokyo Electric Power Company’s (Tepco) plan to discharge more than 1.3million tonnes of radioactive wastewater into the ocean for about 30 years, starting next year.
Following the Nuclear Connections Across Oceania Conference, held at the University of Otago last month, a working group was formed to address the planned radioactive wastewater discharge, she said.
"We learned at our conference that people in Japan and throughout the Pacific are deeply concerned about the radioactive wastewater discharge."
The emerging collective of community members, academics, legal experts, non-governmental organisations and activists from across the Pacific, who met through the conference, had called on Tepco to halt its discharge plans, she said.
It also called for the New Zealand Government to "stay true to its dedication to a nuclear-free Pacific" by taking a case to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea against Japan’s plans.
Dr Burch said predictive models showed radioactive particles released would spread to the northern Pacific.
"To ensure they do not cause biological or ecological harm, these uranium-derived radionuclides need to be stored securely for the amount of time it takes for them to decay to a more stable state.
"For a radionuclide such as Iodine-129, this could be 160 million years."
Tepco was using advanced liquid processing system technology to filter uranium-derived radionuclides from the wastewater that had been cooling the damaged reactors since 2011, she said.
"While in Japanese the radioactive wastewater is often referred to as ‘treated water’, this does not automatically mean that the water is free from uranium-derived radionuclides.
"It simply means the amount of measurable radionuclides are under a designated threshold limit."
She said the Japanese government had known since at least August 2018 the treated wastewater contained long-lasting radionuclides such as Iodine-129 in quantities exceeding government regulations.
The working group called for clarity from the Japanese Government, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Secretary-general of the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat and Pacific Ocean commissioner, and a Pacific panel of independent global experts on nuclear issues on the outcome of numerous meetings they have had about the discharge.
It also called for a "transparent and accountable" consultation process which would include Japanese civil society groups, Pacific leaders, and regional organisations.
"These processes must be directed by impacted communities within Japan and throughout the Pacific to facilitate fair and open public deliberations and rigorous scientific debate," she said.
