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Hong Kong’s leader said he strongly opposes Japan’s release into the sea of treated radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear plant and the city would “immediately activate” import controls on Japanese seafood.
Japan will has started releasing more than a million tons of water from the plant north of Tokyo, insisting it is safe to do so. The plant was wrecked in a 2011 tsunami and the water has mostly been used to cool damaged reactors.
Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee said he had told the secretary for the environment and ecology and relevant departments to immediately activate import controls to protect food safety and public health.
Hong Kong announced in July that the ban would apply to imported aquatic products from the Japanese regions of Tokyo, Fukushima, Chiba, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Gunma, Miyagi, Niigata, Nagano and Saitama. It covers live, frozen, refrigerated, dried aquatic products, sea salt and seaweed.