IAEA: Science, objectivity key to Fukushima water release

By MARI YAMAGUCHI
Associated Press

TOKYO (AP) — A key International Atomic Energy Agency official says objective, science-based monitoring is the key to safely carrying the planned release of treated but still radioactive water at Japan’s wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant. A three-member IAEA team is in Japan for a five-day visit for preliminary talks and a visit to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which went into meltdown after a 2011 earthquake and tsunami. The team is making preparations for the years of monitoring the IAEA will do of the planned water discharge, which is expected to take decades. The water was once used to cool the plant’s reactors but started to leak after the disaster. The planned release has been fiercely opposed by fishermen, local residents and Japan’s neighbors.