Jimmy Cheng, the owner of a Japanese restaurant in Hong Kong called Superdon, said he was concerned that his customers “might be worried about eating Japanese food.”
Cheng, 34, said that while convincing customers would be “another challenge” for his restaurant, he had been preparing for the restrictions for months, so “in terms of the operation of the restaurant, it is not a huge problem.”
The South Korean government reiterated this week that it sees no scientific or technical issue with plans to release the water.
“If by any chance Japan veers from its original discharge plan, the South Korean government will deem this action harmful to the safety and health of the South Korean people and request Japan to cease all operations immediately,” Park Ku-yeon, the first deputy chief of the Office for Government Policy Coordination, said Tuesday at a news briefing in Seoul.
Despite government assurances that it will closely monitor the release and test seafood for radiation, the South Korean public has expressed high levels of anxiety over the plan. Civic groups and the country’s majority opposition party have held protests around the country, including Wednesday.
Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown, the chair of a forum of 18 Pacific island nations, said in a statement Wednesday that while he believes the discharge meets international safety standards, other Pacific leaders may disagree.
Experts say a lot of time and study have gone into the process.
“This is not a decision or set of steps that are happening in haste by any means, and this is a practice that is common and consistent around the world and with the nuclear energy industry,” said Marina Lorenzini of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
According to data posted online by the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, water with much higher levels of tritium has been discharged by nuclear facilities in countries including China, South Korea, Canada and France in line with local regulations.
Lorenzini said that the IAEA’s active engagement in the Fukushima process “makes me feel a lot more comfortable and confident with the events we see playing out today.”
The IAEA said this week that it would maintain an onsite presence at the Fukushima plant, where it opened an office last month, and publish real-time and near real-time monitoring data.
“I think we have good reason to believe that this will be a well-monitored and well-maintained operation,” Lorenzini said.