Japan Dumps 1 Million Tons of Radioactive Waste Water?

Claim: 

Japan will start dumping 1 million tons of radioactive waste water into the ocean on Thursday.

Our Rating: 

We rated this claim a 60% because the claim is based on facts, but it is leaving out a significant amount of information surrounding the waste water dumping. 

The entirety of the claim, states that Japan will start dumping about 1 million tons of radioactive waste into the ocean on the Thursday after it was announced. This claim would fall under Mal-information because there are some portions of truth embedded within this post, however, this post is used to inflict harm on the Japanese seafood industry. 

While we can’t access the original post on X what we can see is that the language of the post most likely caused panic. Specifically, the “Radioactive Contamination Alert” is complete with the radioactive symbol emojis. The use of these words and emojis most likely caused the post to blow up and the mal-information to be spread very quickly. This post is talking about 1 million tons of radioactive wastewater being dumped into the ocean on Thursday. It is warning people to keep their families away from Japanese seafood because of the idea that the waste water would impact the fish which would then be put into the exports of seafood from Japan. 

They did not use any citation or information from a news source, they included what looks like a screenshot. With that being said when starting the fact-checking process, we found coverage from multiple news sources such as New York Times, NPR, and BBC. 

What's True:

In April of 2021, the Japanese government released its plan on how it would manage excess water at the Fukushima Daichi Nuclear Power Station. The plan stated that they would slowly release the water into the sea after it underwent specific treatment. After the plan was formulated, Japan requested that the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) review their plans against international safety standards. 

After forming a task force to review the plan from the Japanese government and then the IAEA released a comprehensive ALPS report detailing their findings. In which it states that they have "concluded that the approach and activities to the discharge of ALPS treated water taken by Japan are consistent with relevant international safety standards." Therefore, the IAEA supports the gradual discharge of treated water into the ocean and that the water will have "a negligible radiological impact on people and the environment."  

What's False:

The post incorrectly states that the Japanese government will be releasing 1 million tons of nuclear wastewater into the ocean. They did not mention that the release is gradual and that the water has been treated. The post also fails to assert that the government got this plan approved against international safety standards through the IAEA. Additionally, the IAEA found that there will be no negative effect on the people or the environment, including the wildlife found there that will become seafood exports.