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In the past, during the Great East Japan Earthquake, Japan has kept radioactive polluted water at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, trying to drain it to the sea, Greenpeace, an international environmental protection group, claimed. The amount of polluted water is over 1 million tons, so we are worried about the damage in our country right now.

I am reporter Kim Kwan-jin.

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Contribution to The Economist by Sean Bernie, Senior Peace Specialist at Greenpeace.

"The Abe government is trying to release more than one million tons of high-level radioactive contaminated water from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in the Pacific," Sean Bernie said.

"If contaminated water circulates through ocean currents, it is difficult for Korea to escape radiological hazards."

One million tons of contaminated water is the amount that can be diluted by pouring 770 million tons of water over 17 years.

The Japanese government has been purifying radioactive contaminated water and storing it in large tanks.

However, while polluted water continued to accumulate and exceeded 900,000 tons, it was attempted to be dumped at sea.

In this situation, Greenpeace believes that the Japan Atomic Energy Advisory Committee has recently been encouraging the discharge of polluted water.

[Jangmari / Greenpeace Campaigner: We recommend that discharge is the cheapest and quickest way. The Japanese government has not made any investment plans or plans for long-term storage.

In fact, if Japan is forced to discharge polluted water, we do not have to take any measures.

[Kang Jeong-gu / Department of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries: Dept. of Marine Environment Policy: What is the degree of pollution and what are the future plans?

Although there is an international ocean dumping convention, there is no basis for sanctions if the country is releasing contaminated water.

As controversy escalated today, the Fukushima Shimbun reported today that tanks are being considered for long-term storage.

However, contaminated water will continue to generate, and after mid-2022, the tanks will be full again and controversy will continue.

(Video coverage: Kim Hyunsang, Video editing: Jinhwa Choi, VJ: Shin Soyoung)