On Sunday, The Straits Times was among the first media outlets – domestic and foreign – to visit the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant since the discharge began three days earlier, in a process that will end with its full decommissioning only in 2051.
Yet, the blowback has been swift since the discharge began. China imposed a blanket ban on all Japanese seafood, while Hong Kong and Macau stiffened restrictions in what Japanese newspaper editorials have lambasted as “economic coercion”. Amid the brouhaha, water was being discharged as planned at Tepco’s Fukushima Daiichi plant – a drab coastal compound of six nuclear reactors – on Sunday, with the audible sounds of seawater gushing in through large pipes to be used for dilution. Much has changed since this reporter’s last visit in 2018, with more than 1,000 giant water tanks now dotting the site.
The issue with nuclear science is that many laypeople find it esoteric. How many know what tritium is, let alone realise that it exists in rain and tap water? How many know about background radiation, let alone that levels in Fukushima are similar to those in Singapore or Seoul? Tepco wants to change minds and win trust, even enlisting two public relations agencies to help shape the narrative.
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