IAEA's report on Japan ocean discharge plan 'one-sided'

The conclusion in the IAEA's report approving Japan's ocean discharge plan "has limitations and is one-sided," and fails to address the world's concerns about the plan, Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said.

The report was issued hastily and does not to fully reflect views of experts from all parties who have participated in reviewing Japan's plan, Wang said at a daily news conference on Friday.

Wang made the remarks after the IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi admitted to Reuters there were disagreements in the team of international experts behind the report.

"The IAEA director-general has said the institution does not endorse any country's ocean discharge of nuclear-contaminated water," Wang said, urging Japan to "give up using the IAEA's report as a green light for its ocean discharge plan".

Wang also slammed Japan for trying to "mislead the public by confusing the nuclear-contaminated water generated by Fukushima's nuclear accident with water discharged during normal operations of nuclear power plants".

Japan said on Thursday China and the Republic of Korea have both discharged liquid waste containing high levels of tritium, Kyodo News reported.

The news agency also quoted Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno as saying Japan's standard for the release of tritium is far stricter than that of China and the ROK.

Rebuking Tokyo's comments, Wang said there is an essential difference between nuclear-contaminated water directly contacting melted reactors damaged in the Fukushima accident and the water released during the normal operation of nuclear power plants.

Also, the IAEA didn't assess the effectiveness and long-term reliability of Japan's facilities to treat nuclear-contaminated water and cannot guarantee that all the contaminated water discharged over the next three decades will be treated according to standards, Wang pointed out.

"No matter what the Japanese side do to 'whitewash' the harm of the nuclear-contaminated water, it will not succeed in slipping through the world," Wang said.