China bans Japanese seafood after release of Fukushima wastewater into ocean

China announced Thursday it was banning all seafood from Japan following Tokyo’s decision to begin releasing treated radioactive wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear plant, dramatically escalating an already tense feud between the two neighbors.

The release is a component of a contentious proposal that has drawn vehement opposition from a large number of customers as well as certain regional nations, with Beijing taking the lead in this criticism.

The start of the release on Thursday afternoon sparked a fiery tirade from China which described the operation as a “selfish and irresponsible act.”

China’s customs agency then declared that it would suspend importing any aquatic items from Japan, which means that the ban might also apply to other marine goods besides fish, such as sea salt and seaweed.

The move was aimed at preventing “the risk of radioactive contamination of food safety caused by Japan’s Fukushima nuclear-contaminated water discharge,” and to protect the health of Chinese consumers, the customs department said in its statement.

Japan has argued throughout the building controversy that discharging the treated water is safe and urgently needed to free up space at the crippled nuclear power plant.

The company said it expects to discharge only around 200 or 210 cubic meters of treated wastewater. From Friday, it plans to then continuously release 456 cubic meters of treated wastewater over a 24-hour period and a total of 7,800 cubic meters over a 17-day period.

TEPCO said that the operation would be suspended immediately and an investigation conducted if any abnormalities are detected in the discharge equipment or the dilution levels of the treated wastewater.

Later on Thursday, it will send a boat into the port to gather samples in order to monitor and make sure that the treated wastewater released complies with global safety requirements.

The water inside the Fukushima nuclear plant became contaminated with extremely radioactive substances as a result of the disastrous earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan in 2011. Since then, more radioactive wastewater has been produced as a result of groundwater leaks and the pumping of fresh water to cool reactor fuel debris.

Authorities warned that room was running out in 2019 as part of their long-standing strategy to release the water.

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