设计理念范文:Should Japan seek Okay from neighbors before discharging hazards ?

Should Japan seek Okay from neighbors before discharging hazards ? 14:32, April 07, 2011
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By Li Hongmei
With an apology to the public, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) on Monday night began pumping water with low levels of radiation into the ocean from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
The nuclear crisis has already distracted the global attention from the humanitarian job of helping survivors from the quake and tsunami, which flattened and washed away whole towns and villages along Japan's northeastern coast. More than 28,000 people are dead or missing, while almost 160,000 people are living in temporary shelters.
TEPCO plans to empty a total of 11,500 tons of contaminated water from the tank to make room for water that is much more contaminated and preventing repair work.
Under the reactor regulation law, contaminated water can be discharged as an "emergency measure." TEPCO officials submitted the water discharge plan to the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) and received its approval.
An NISA official said the TEPCO decision was "unavoidable."
Why "unavoidable"? It must be beyond the international community, as Japan has neither talked with the neighboring countries nor held international meetings in any form over the "emergency measure," all decided unilaterally by itself.
Even though TEPCO officials, who calculated the effects from the water discharged, came out testifying to the jittery public: Assuming that an individual ate fish and seaweed taken at least 1 kilometer from the Fukushima plant on a daily basis for a year, the amount of radiation ingested would only be one-fourth of the natural radiation exposure over the course of a year of 2.4 millisieverts, the nightmare water, believed to have been contaminated from highly radioactive materials that spread from the Fukushima plant, still chills the spine of the neighboring countries.
South Korea, which lies west of Japan, takes the lead saying it is concerned radioactive water could reach its shores. Japanese Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto, however, says Japan has done everything to minimize the contamination of the ocean and promised to inform the international community of its decisions in accordance with United Nations regulations.
Still, S Korea raises the doubt whether the Japanese practice of dumping its radioactive water into the Pacific has violated international maritime law.
Previously, nuclear experts also said that the damaged reactors were far from being under control almost a month after they were hit by the 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami March 11, which has plunged Japan in its worst ever crisis since World War Two and rocked the world's third-largest economy.
The growing concerns about radioactive fallout from Japan also make the Chinese public keyed up when China's health ministry reported trace amounts of radioactive iodine in spinach in three Chinese provinces.
The above-mentioned two western neighbors of Japan, as well as Russia, have reportedly complained they have not been fully informed about TEPCO's plans to release radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean.
India followed the suit announcing it is blocking all food imports from Japan for three months because of concerns about radiation contamination. Also, India is the first country to impose a blanket ban on Japanese products, though other countries have suspended imports from the areas close to the earthquake- and tsunami-damaged nuclear plant.
Meanwhile, TEPCO's malpractice of dumping radioactive water also enrages the fishermen at home, who angrily denounced the profit-before-everything mentality and called it "unbearable atrocity".
"From now on, our fishermen will never cooperate with or accept nuclear power generation. I would like them to stop even those reactors that are now in operation right away," Ikuhiro Hattori, chairman of the Japan Fisheries Cooperatives, told NHK state television.
The company in question has not even informed the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of its dumping decision.
Undoubtedly, TEPCO set a bad precedent for the disposal of nuclear wastes and hazards----releasing them rashly in the international space. When the deadly disaster hit Japan, countries of the Pacific Rim never hesitate in offering humanitarian aids. It is Japan's turn to showcase it is a responsible power of pivotal position in the international community.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan said Tuesday that his government will take ultimate responsibility for the damage caused by the disaster. Hopefully, what he will do as follows can square with what he promised. At least, Japan should never shift its own troubles onto others. The international convention bans moving dangerous materials from one environment to another without negotiating with all the countries to be affected.
What should Japan do before discharging hazardous materials into the international waters?
It is highly demanded that the proposals to dispose of its radioactive water be open, transparent and accessible to the international community; and only upon the agreement of the international community, can the further steps be taken.
Additionally, the basic principle guiding the disposal of nuclear-contaminated water insists the crisis should be settled on the spot, within Japan's territory. Except when the international community agrees the ongoing crisis is really beyond a country's management and "unavoidable" as described by the Japanese side, the contaminated water should never be dumped into the ocean.
Hard as Japan's circumstances could be, a responsible power should never give up its commitments and obligations to the world and people across the world.
The articles in this column represent the author's views only. They do not represent opinions of People's Daily or People's Daily Online.
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