Storage tanks for radioactive water are seen at Tokyo Electric Power Co's (TEPCO) tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Okuma town, Fukushima prefecture, Japan, in this picture taken on Feb. 18. Reuters



By Kim Jae-heun



An international environment organization has said that Japan plans to discharge radioactive waste into the Pacific Ocean in the near future and Korea will fall particularly vulnerable.



Greenpeace Korea, the global NGO's branch in Seoul, reposted on Facebook, Wednesday, a column by its nuclear specialist Shaun Burnie published in The Economist, saying Japan is planning to discharge more than 1 million liters of contaminated water stored at the Fukushima nuclear plant since the massive earthquake and nuclear disaster of 2011.



Burnie wrote in his article that the Japanese government has decided recently to take the "cheapest and fastest" way to dispose wastewater, which is to discharge it into the Pacific Ocean.



The scientist added neighboring countries will be exposed to radiation as a result and Korea, in particular, will suffer the most from it.



He claimed that if 1 million tons of radioactive water is discharged into the ocean, it will take 17 years and 770 million tons of water to dilute it, adding it is impossible not to discharge it without contaminating the ocean, and countries in the Pacific region will be exposed to radiation.





Shaun Burnie, nuclear senior specialist at Greenpeace, speaks of Japan's plans to discharge radioactive waste into the Pacific Ocean in this picture. Courtesy of Greenpeace Korea