Fukushima Water Row: Japan receives over 1,000 abusive calls from Chinese citizens

livemint.com:

BBC. Authorities informed that the abusive calls had begun since the release of Fukushima water into the Pacific and the callers usually speak in Chinese, English, and Japanese language. The callers strongly oppose Japan's move to release treated radioactive nuclear water.

This came after China on Thursday said that it would ban Japanese seafood imports. However, Tokyo reiterated that seawater around the Fukushima nuclear plant does not contain any detectable levels of radioactivity, BBC reported. China expressed deep concern about the potential for radioactive contamination in Japan's food and agricultural products exported to China, according to a statement from Chinese customs officials.

Japan began dumping the water from the plant north of Tokyo into the sea on Thursday despite objections both at home and abroad from fishing communities and others worried about the environmental impact. Japan and scientific organizations had said that the water, distilled after being contaminated by contact with fuel rods when the reactor was destroyed in a 2011 earthquake and tsunami, is now safe. A Reuters report said that Tokyo Electric Power has been filtering the water to remove isotopes, leaving only tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen that is hard to separate.

Japan's fisheries agency also clarified that fish tested in waters around the plant did not contain detectable levels of tritium. However, South Korea said it sees no scientific problems with the water release but environmental activists argue that all possible impacts have not been studied. In 2014, a Scientific Americal article stated that tritium is considered to be relatively harmless because its radiation is not energetic enough to penetrate human skin, but