Government: "Resumption of Contaminated Water Discharge After Japan Earthquake... Continuous Safety Monitoring"

Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) in Japan resumed the discharge of contaminated water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant, which had been halted due to an earthquake in eastern Fukushima Prefecture on the 15th. Meanwhile, the South Korean government plans to continuously monitor the safety of the situation.

At a briefing at the Government Complex Seoul on the same day, Park Gu-yeon, First Deputy Minister of the Office for Government Policy Coordination, stated, "The earthquake in Japan qualifies as an 'abnormal situation' that requires the suspension of contaminated water discharge. The Japanese side stopped the discharge and promptly notified us of the related facts."

Deputy Minister Park explained, "According to TEPCO, no significant changes have been detected yet in the monitoring equipment at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, and there has been no radioactive leakage to the outside. Our government has also reconfirmed TEPCO's announcement that no unusual situation has occurred."

Park Gu-yeon, First Deputy Director of the Office for Government Policy Coordination, is presenting a briefing and future plans related to the discharge of contaminated water from Fukushima at the Government Complex Seoul in Jongno-gu, Seoul, on the 11th. Photo by Jo Yong-jun jun21@

He added, "Since earthquakes have occurred consecutively in the sea off Fukushima recently, our government is closely monitoring the related situation and plans to dispatch our experts to Fukushima on-site to more thoroughly check the situation."

Regarding the timing of resuming the discharge of contaminated water after the earthquake, he said, "It is not yet at the stage of reviewing that part. If it is judged that there is no additional impact or risk from this earthquake, the discharge is expected to resume."

Earlier, the Japan Meteorological Agency announced that an earthquake with a magnitude of 5.8 occurred off the coast of Fukushima Prefecture at around 0:14 a.m., and a maximum seismic intensity of lower 5 on the Japanese scale was recorded in the area surrounding the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.

Subsequently, TEPCO stopped the discharge of contaminated water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant at 0:33 a.m., and after determining that there was no equipment malfunction, resumed the fourth discharge of contaminated water at 3:49 p.m. on the 15th.