Government: "IAEA Final Report Does Not Omit ALPS Verification"

2020 Review Report Released
Performance Verified Through Reader Validation

The government rebutted the criticism that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)'s final report omitted verification of the Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS), stating, "We released the ALPS review report in April 2020." It also confirmed ALPS performance through independent verification by the Korean government. This is a counterargument to the claim that although ALPS is a key facility in Japan's contaminated water treatment, the IAEA comprehensive report does not include this information.

On the 10th, Park Gu-yeon, First Deputy Minister of the Office for Government Policy Coordination, stated at the 'Fukushima Contaminated Water Daily Briefing' held at the Government Complex Seoul, "The ALPS Subcommittee review report (published in April 2020) contains information that ALPS is stable and reliable."

Park also mentioned, "Separately, our government's independent verification confirmed that the radionuclides (69 in total) that Japan announced it would disclose the concentrations of before discharge were appropriately selected." In particular, after reviewing ALPS inlet and outlet concentration analysis, adsorbent performance, and long-term operability, it was confirmed that performance has been stable since mid-2019. Park stated, "The criticism that the IAEA did not verify ALPS performance or that there are defects in ALPS performance is not valid."

He also addressed criticism that the IAEA released the comprehensive report without results from the second and third sample analyses. He explained, "The IAEA has been monitoring by collecting contaminated water samples and analyzing concentrations by radionuclide," adding, "The IAEA adopts a method where multiple laboratories participate and cross-verify results to consider errors that may occur when a single laboratory analyzes samples alone."

These samplings and analyses were conducted three times. The first monitoring and the second and third monitoring differ in methods and purposes, and this difference seems to have influenced whether the results were included in the comprehensive report. However, the first sample was taken from the K4 tank, which measures the radioactivity concentration of contaminated water after ALPS purification, so it was considered more meaningful than the second and third sample analysis results. This is because if the measurement from the K4 tank does not meet the discharge standard, the water returns to the ALPS purification stage.

Regarding imports of Fukushima seafood, the government drew a clear line. Park stated, "As the head of the Office for Government Policy Coordination said last week, there is no causal relationship between the report and the ban on imports of Japanese seafood," clearly indicating no intention to resume imports.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.