Fourteen years have passed since the Fukushima nuclear accident, which occurred on March 11, 2011, following the Great East Japan Earthquake. The earthquake and tsunami damaged the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant’s electrical grid, releasing hydrogen and radioactive wastewater into the surrounding environment.
When the Japanese government and Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) began discharging ALPS-treated water from the Fukushima plant into the Pacific Ocean in August 2023, South Korea’s opposition parties and civil society groups strongly criticized the move, warning that the contaminated water could spread to Korean waters and lead to a catastrophe. Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, said at the time, “The discharge of contaminated water from Fukushima will be recorded as the second Pacific War.”
TEPCO recently announced plans to begin the 11th batch of wastewater discharge from March 12 to 17. This time, Korea’s main opposition party has not voiced any criticism. Apart from the fact that South Korea is in the midst of political turmoil, awaiting the court’s impeachment ruling on President Yoon Suk-yeol, the 11th discharge has faced little political pushback because the ten previous wastewater discharges have taken place without incident. According to reports from the Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety (KINS), the discharges have not yet contaminated the sea or seafood.
“Back in 2011, radioactive water from the Fukushima plant was released without any treatment, but since August 24, 2023, Japan has been discharging ALPS-treated water that has been diluted to meet regulatory safety limits,” said Chung Bum-jin, a professor at Kyunghee University’s Department of Nuclear Engineering. “If untreated water did not cause major issues back then, there is no scientific or logical reason to believe that treated water would be problematic now.”
ChosunBiz collected radiation safety data from various government agencies, including the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, and the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, to see whether any problems have arisen since the discharge began on August 24, 2023.
Since the first discharge in August 2023, KINS has conducted monitoring after each release, publishing reports that so far have concluded no abnormalities have been detected.
The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries has also conducted radiation tests on seafood distributed in South Korea. The surveyed items include sea salt, mackerel, seaweed, halibut, anchovies, cutlassfish, oysters, yellowfin tuna, blue crab, and squid. Since August 24, 2023, more than 28,000 radiation tests have been conducted on seafood, and no sample has failed safety standards.
The same pattern holds for radiation surveys of domestic waters and coastal areas. Testing for cesium and tritium—two key radioactive isotopes—has shown that they remained within normal levels. Nationwide monitoring from 238 radiation stations, including the southernmost island of Marado, has consistently reported no abnormal readings.
Food imported from Japan also showed no signs of significant risk. The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety releases daily reports on radiation tests for food imports. Since August 24, 2023, a total of 55,231 radiation tests have been conducted on food imported from Japan. Of these, 55,198 passed, while only 33 samples were deemed non-compliant, resulting in a failure rate of just 0.059%.
Imported food from other countries had higher failure rates for radiation testing during the same period, such as 1.114% for China, 0.535% for Russia, 0.583% for the United States, and 2.586% for Italy. Given that Japanese food imports undergo more testing than other countries, data suggests that Japanese food is relatively safer than imports from many other nations.
“Since January 2023, a total of 457 ships arriving from Japanese ports, including Chiba Prefecture, have had their ballast water tested for radiation, and all have met safety standards,” said Song Myung-dal, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries.
