China resumed the purchase of Japanese seafood after the ban was imposed in 2023

Japan has announced the resumption of seafood supplies to China for the first time since Beijing imposed a ban on imports in 2023 due to wastewater discharge from the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant. This was reported on November 7 by NBC News.

"Chief Secretary of the Cabinet of Ministers of [Japan] Minoru Kihara told reporters that 6 tons of scallops caught in Hokkaido were sent to China on Wednesday. This is the first shipment to this country since Beijing banned all Japanese seafood in August 2023," the article says.

It is noted that Japan widely welcomed the easing of Chinese restrictions and called on Beijing to speed up the re-registration of export applications under consideration. At the same time, Tokyo will continue to insist on the complete lifting of restrictions, including beef exports to China.

According to the TV channel, the discharge of treated wastewater into the ocean has been the subject of long-running internal discussions in Japan due to concerns about restrictions on exports. In addition, it could become a serious irritant in relations with neighbors, primarily with China and South Korea.

In March 2011, an accident occurred at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant, triggered by the strongest earthquake in Japanese history and the subsequent tsunami. It was decided to liquidate the power plant, while water continued to accumulate in the reservoirs of the nuclear power plant to cool the damaged reactors.

Japan began dumping radiation-free water from the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant into the ocean in August 2023. The government of the country stated that it is safe for the environment, since the water as a whole is purified from radioactive substances and contains only an isotope of hydrogen, also known as tritium. According to the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, we are talking about the discharge of almost 1.5 million tons of radioactive water contaminated with tritium, carbon-14, potassium-40, strontium-90, iodine-129, as well as isotopes of caesium and plutonium.

After Tokyo's decision, China banned the import of fish and seafood from Japan. The Chinese Foreign Ministry stressed that they oppose such a decision by Japan. The head of Rospotrebnadzor, Anna Popova, also noted that no traces of tritium were found in the water after the discharge of water from the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant, but there is a risk of accumulation of dangerous substances over time.

In January 2024, it was reported that the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant plans to dump about 54.6 tons of purified water into the ocean. In addition, it is planned to explore the possibilities of eliminating fragments of molten nuclear fuel from the nuclear power plant.

All important news is on the Izvestia channel in the MAX messenger.