Prof. Julien de Troullioud de Lanversin, Assistant Professor of PPOL, voiced in a recent Special Edition of The Point with Liu Xin on China Global Television Network (CGTN) over the topic “Cup or bucket? With what should we measure Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO)’s credibility?”
First, as regards the concern about TEPCO's credibility arose out of “a few hundred milliliters vs a few liters splashing of radioactive water” in reports about plant workers accidentally splashed with radioactive liquid in late October this year, Prof. de Troullioud de Lanversin stated that the alleged inconsistency of the reports does not put into question the safety of the entire process of wastewater discharge, that it should not be a major reason for concern with regard to the transparency of TEPCO, due to the regularity of this type of incidents in power plants, including nuclear power plants.
Further, reacting to the suspicion of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)'s partiality in the case of Fukushima wastewater discharge, he commented that it is not justified to doubt the IAEA's neutrality, as the IAEA is the nuclear watchdog of the United Nations, an agency trusted by all its member states, and based on the fact that the process of validating the Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS) of the Fukushima nuclear plant involved an international team including experts from China and Russia. He stressed that the accusations against the IAEA as being compromised in the Fukushima case lack backup evidence.
In response to Liu Xin’s question about whether IAEA has the authority to say “things went well”, and “no issues observed” means no issues, referring to IAEA Deputy Director General Lydie Evrard’s statement on Fukushima wastewater discharge that “the first two batches of release went well, no issues were observed”, Prof. de Troullioud de Lanversin pointed out that although IAEA does not have the mandate to make recommendations to governments, it has been mandated by Japan only to verify whether the wastewater discharge was below the safety threshold, highlighting that the IAEA has its independent sampling and radiation detection equipment to test the radiation level of the contaminated water, and there is ample evidence that the IAEA is ensuring the transparency of the process.
Prof. Julien de Troullioud de Lanversin on CGTN on the issue of TEPCO’s credibility and IAEA’s neutrality
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