Asia-Pacific Nations Fret Over Fukushima Wastewater Release

Anxiety is rising among Japan's neighbors ahead of a plan to release treated wastewater from the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant.
Calls to boycott Japanese exports, from seafood to cosmetic products, spread across social media after the Chinese government announced it would tighten its scrutiny of food from Japan and maintain curbs on some imports, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported.
The nuclear plant, devastated in 2011 by a magnitude-8.9 earthquake and subsequent tsunami, is set to release more than a million tons of radioactive water.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said a two-year review showed Japan's plan for the release would have negligible environmental impact.
But Beijing said IAEA has released its report in "haste" and it "failed to fully reflect views from experts that participated in the review".
"The conclusion was not shared by all experts," China's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Authorities in Hong Kong recently said they had "repeatedly expressed grave concern about the impact of the discharge plan on food safety", and planned to impose some curbs on seafood from high-risk areas once the release of wastewater begins.
Japan is planning to filter the 1.3 million tons of wastewater sitting in huge storage tanks at the Fukushima power plant using a highly specialized filtration system, called Advanced Liquid Processing System. 
The process will remove 62 radionuclides from the contaminated water, and leave only one contaminant called tritium, which is difficult to separate from water.