This aerial picture shows storage tanks (left) used for storing treated water at TEPCO's crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Okuma, Fukushima prefecture on Aug 24, 2023. (PHOTO / JIJI PRESS VIA AFP)

BEIJING - No monitoring could be read as an endorsement of Japan's ocean discharge or give it any amount of legitimacy or legality sought by Japan, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Tuesday.

The IAEA said a few days ago on its website that its first independent sampling and analysis of seawater near the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station since the discharges of Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS) treated water started confirms that the tritium levels are below Japan's operational limit.

I also need to point out that no monitoring could be read as an endorsement of Japan's ocean discharge or give it any amount of legitimacy or legality sought by Japan. Japan should immediately stop shifting the risks of nuclear pollution to the whole world.

Mao Ning, Spokesperson for China's Foreign Ministry

When asked for comments, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a daily press briefing that Japan's discharge of nuclear-contaminated water into the ocean is an unprecedented move that bears on other countries' major interest and concern, and the IAEA Secretariat's so-called monitoring is neither mandated by the body's Board of Governors nor fully discussed by member states.

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It is merely the Secretariat's technical consulting and support for Japan, and is neither international nor independent, Mao said.

She noted that a total of 7,800 tonnes of nuclear-contaminated water has been dumped into the ocean, and yet the international community still has not been informed of the IAEA Secretariat's specific monitoring arrangements.

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The world calls for an international monitoring arrangement that has the full and substantive participation of Japan's neighboring countries and other stakeholders and will remain effective over the long run, as well as a detailed monitoring plan that covers such aspects as the categories of radionuclides, the frequency, the locations, the scope and the reporting, Mao said, calling on Japan and the IAEA Secretariat to respond to these issues in a serious and responsible manner.

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"I also need to point out that no monitoring could be read as an endorsement of Japan's ocean discharge or give it any amount of legitimacy or legality sought by Japan. Japan should immediately stop shifting the risks of nuclear pollution to the whole world," said the spokesperson.