Pacific Islands Summit Shows Understanding of ALPS-Treated Water

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The 10th Pacific Islands Leaders Meeting (PALM10) was held from July 16 to 18 in Tokyo. The summit has taken place in Japan every three years since 1997 to strengthen Japan’s partnerships with the island nations of the Pacific. (Due to Covid-19, the previous meeting, PALM9 in 2021, had been held via videoconference.)

By the second day of the conference, Japan’s Prime Minister KISHIDA Fumio had met individually with the leaders of Cook Islands, Fiji, Marshall Islands, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.

Referring to the offshore release of water from Fukushima Daiichi―the water having already been treated by the Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS), purifying it of radioactive substances other than tritium to levels below regulatory standards―the prime minister told them that Japan would “continue its efforts to ensure safety.” Each of the attending leaders responded to his comments appreciatively.

More than a year ago, on July 4, 2023, Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) hand-delivered to the Japanese government the IAEA’s comprehensive report on its safety review of the ALPS-treated water, following which the first release of the water into the sea began on August 24 of the same year. The seventh release was completed recently, on July 16.

A second IAEA safety review mission comprising international experts visited Japan from April 23 to 26 of this year, after the releases had begun. Recently, on July 18, the IAEA published a report on the results after on-site investigations and discussions with relevant organizations, stating, “Nothing was identified that is inconsistent with the requirements in the relevant international safety standards.”