UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 22 (Reuters) – The president of the state of Micronesia in the Pacific condemned the United Nations’ decision to dump what he called nuclear-contaminated water from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant into the Pacific.

In a speech to the UN General Assembly in New York, David Panuelo said Micronesia had “greatest concerns” about Japan’s decision to release water into the ocean, the so-called Advanced Fluid Processing System (ALPS).

“We cannot close our eyes to the unimaginable threats of nuclear contamination, marine pollution and the eventual destruction of the Blue Pacific,” he said.

“The effects of this decision are both cross-border and intergenerational. As head of the state of Micronesia, I cannot allow our ocean resources that support the livelihood of our people to be destroyed. “

Japan said in July that its nuclear regulators had approved a plan to release water used to cool reactors into the Pacific in the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster in March 2011.

The water was stored in huge tanks at the plant and by July amounted to over 1.3 million tons.

The Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said at the time that regulators believed the release of the water, which after purification, would still contain traces of the radioactive tritium isotope.

When asked about Panuelo’s statement, Yukiko Okano, the ministry’s deputy press secretary, said of Fukushima that Japan would do everything in its power to “gain understanding from the international community about the safety of our operations there.”

The plant operator, Tokyo Power Electric Company (Tepco), plans to filter contaminated water to remove harmful isotopes in addition to tritium, which is difficult to remove. It will then be diluted and released to free up some space in the factory to allow the decommissioning of Fukushima to continue.

The plan has encountered strong resistance from regional fishing unions fearful of its impact on their livelihoods. Japan’s neighbors China, South Korea and Taiwan also expressed concern.

Panuelo also drew attention to the threat posed by climate change, to which the Pacific island states are particularly exposed. He called on geopolitical rivals the United States and China to regard this as “a non-political and uncompetitive issue of cooperation.”

“For the shortest time, it seemed that the Americans with whom Micronesia shared a lasting partnership, and the Chinese with whom Micronesia has a Great Friendship, started working together on this issue, despite growing tensions elsewhere,” he said. “Now they don’t talk to each other on this important matter anymore.”

In August, China announced that in protest against the visit of US House President Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan, it would suspend bilateral cooperation with the United States in areas such as defense, drugs, international crime and climate change.

Panuelo’s speech coincided with a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken from the Blue Pacific countries, including Japan, to better coordinate aid to the region in the face of competition from China. read more

Registration Reporting by David Brunnstrom; editing by Grant McCool and Stephen Coates

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