The controversial discharge of wastewater from Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant in the Pacific has sparked a wave of disinformation in China. Worrying pollution of the ocean has been reported in viral posts without any scientific basis.
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“By dumping the nuclear-contaminated waters of #Fukushima into the sea, Japan is unleashing Godzilla, a symbol of its own nuclear trauma, upon the world,” wrote Zhang Meifang, Beijing’s Consul-General in Belfast, in the caption of an animation posted to X (ex- Twitter) shows the Godzilla monster surrounded by flames.
The Chinese state agency Xinhua was apparently the first to post this video on the social network X, which is banned in China.
Japan on Thursday began draining water from the Fukushima power plant that was damaged in 2011.
This first spill is expected to last about 17 days and affect about 7,800 m3 of water containing tritium, a radioactive substance only dangerous in high concentrations.
The process has been validated by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and assured Tokyo that it is safe for the environment and human health.
That didn’t stop China’s English-language public broadcaster CGTN from airing a spoof of a song that claimed Japan dumped “polluted water and poisoned fish” into the sea.
“misleading” post
“Of course we must resist these rejections,” added Hu Xijin, the influential former editor-in-chief of the state tabloid Global Times, on Chinese social network Weibo, where he has a large following.
“It’s polluting the oceans and creating known long-term risks that we don’t fully understand,” he said.
Cut-out animations polluting the Pacific with radioactive material also went viral.
One of them, with its red and purple currents spreading from Japan across the Pacific, was widely streamed and watched by hundreds of millions of people.
It actually comes from a 2012 study by the Geomar Helmholtz marine research center in Kiel, showing the long-term spread of cesium in the Pacific Ocean after the 2011 accident.
However, Jim Smith, a professor of environmental sciences at the University of Portsmouth, told AFP that using this simulation to commemorate recent Fukushima releases is “misleading”.
“The tritium is diluted in a large body of water by the time it is discharged into the Pacific,” causing the radioactivity “to drop rapidly to levels indistinguishable from normal seawater,” noted Tom Scott of the University of Bristol.
Empty salt shelves
Images of visibly angry seafood vendors broadcast on Weibo Live have drawn widespread negative comment, accusing them of selling contaminated goods.
‘Sell fast. If you don’t sell it now, you’ll never sell it” or “I dare not eat this. Go away”.
In response to the beginning water release from Fukushima, China has suspended all seafood imports from Japan since last week.
Many Chinese bought salt under the misconception that iodized salt protects against radiation, or in a panic that Pacific sea salt could be contaminated.
China’s largest state-owned salt company issued a statement urging consumers not to “blindly stock up” after footage of an empty salt shelf emerged at a store.
In Hong Kong, the government issued a statement saying table salt stocks were “stable” and urging people not to worry.
In that city, a few hours after putting it online, TV station i-Cable retracted a report comparing levels of tritium discharges from nuclear power plants in Asia.
When asked by local media about the reasons for this withdrawal, the broadcaster replied that it would not comment on its editorial decisions.