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PAMC petition seeks to stop Japan plan to dump nuclear wastewater
The Pacific Alliance of Municipal Councils has started a petition on change.org—https://chng.it/JLT2btJQB6—that seeks to stop Japan from dumpling its Fukushima nuclear wastewater into the Pacific Ocean.
Jim Atalig, who is the PAMC president and secretary of the 18th Rota Municipal Council, expressed his strong opposition to the plan, saying, “If it’s not good for their land, it is definitely not good for our ocean where most of us get our food on a daily basis!”
PAMC chair Joseph E. Santos, who is chairman of the 18th Tinian Municipal Council, says, “It is an outrage for anyone to think that it’s okay to dump their toxic wastes in our ocean when we rely on it for food, health activities, and economic sustainability.”
The members of PAMC are the Saipan and Northern Islands Municipal Council, 18th Rota Municipal Council, and 18th Tinian Municipal Council.
PAMC is urging everyone to circulate the petition through their Facebook page “so we can prevail in preventing Japan and any other countries from using our ocean as their toxic waste dumping ground.”
“Nothing good will come out of this, just as the toll of human suffering as a result of all nuclear energy fallouts were never worth their well-intended, but disastrously misguided, objectives,” the council said in a statement.
According to the latest Associated Press report, the construction of facilities needed for a planned release of treated radioactive wastewater into the sea next year from the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant began on Aug. 4, 2022.
Local fishing communities in Japan and neighboring countries have raised concerns about potential health hazards from the radioactive wastewater and the reputation damage to local produce, and oppose the release.
The government announced last year a decision to release the wastewater as a necessary step for the plant’s ongoing decommissioning.
A massive earthquake and tsunami in 2011 destroyed the Fukushima Daiichi plant’s cooling systems, causing triple meltdowns and the release of large amounts of radiation. (With AP)
