Editorial: Controversy Swirls As PM Rabuka Backs Fukushima Water Discharge

Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka’s statement last week agreeing to the recommendation of the Fukushima nuclear treated water discharge into the Pacific Ocean, is not settling well with his supporters.

More so, from those within the ranks of Government. The Fiji Sun has established that some ministers have raised their concerns.

There is a resounding resistance over the lack of consultation, especially when both sides of Parliament agreed earlier this year that they would denounce any move that would threaten the Pacific Ocean’s future.

That future was also in line with the Treaty of Rarotonga, the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty that came into force in 1986.

A distinctive feature of the treaty is its emphasis in keeping the region free of environmental pollution by radioactive wastes and other radioactive matter as outlined in Article 7.

But this year, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), released a report saying that the release of the ‘treated radioactive water’ and its step-by-step measures before it were safe.

Just last month, Dr Robert H. Richmond, a member of a group of international scientists working with the Pacific Island Forum, called the plan ‘ill-advised’, CNN reported.

He added that the Pacific Ocean and its nations were already faced under due stress – with climate change, overfishing and pollution, it did not need to be treated like a ‘dumping ground’.

It remains to be known, whether the same international scientists have now changed their tune.

This is given the fact Mr Rabuka is the outgoing chair of the Pacific Island Forum and the current PIF chair and Cook Island’s Prime Minister, Mark Brown, has also backed Mr Rabuka.

Yes, Mr Brown, chair of the Pacific bloc, also reiterated that the release of the tonnes of treated radioactive water was safe.

At the Forum Economic Ministers meeting in Suva, yesterday, Mr Brown dropped the bombshell: “I share the sentiments of Prime Minister Rabuka and acknowledge that the discharge will be safe.”

One Superpower who has opposed the release is China calling out counterpart, Japan, that the Pacific Ocean was not its sewer.

On the ground, civil society organisations and NGOs have voiced similar sentiments.

Perhaps a passage from the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) factsheets and FAQs will leave food for thought as the rest of nation comprehend PM’s decision.

“No matter where we live, we are all exposed to several different sources of radiation. Natural sources of radiation include cosmic radiation and radionuclides that originated in the earth’s crust and are present everywhere in the environment, including the human body itself.”

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