From the Archives: Report Back from the 2023 Global Greens Congress

Fighting Radioactive Wastewater Dumping from New York to Fukushima

I attended the Global Greens Congress in Incheon, South Korea, as an informal observer intending to interact with and learn from Greens around the world. Leading up to the Congress, I was asked by Tim Hollo, director of the Green Institute, the think tank of the Australian Green Party, to participate in a session on “Power and Grassroots Democracy,” where I made the case that Greens should stand for institutionalizing a confederal grassroots democracy based on citizen assemblies. What I did not anticipate beforehand, but is not surprising given Green anti-nuclear traditions, is that I would participate in actions in South Korea against Japan’s imminent plan to dump over a million tons of radioactive wastewater from the damaged cores of three Fukushima nuclear reactors into the Pacific Ocean.

Anti-nuclear campaigners have been among the primary catalysts for the formation of Green parties around the world, from Germany, France, the UK, and the US to Japan, Taiwan, and Australia. In South Korea in 2023, I found myself coming from a fight in New York to stop the dumping of radioactive wastewater into the Hudson River from the decommissioning Indian Point nuclear power plants into a similar fight against radioactive wastewater dumping with anti-nuclear campaigners in South Korea and around the Asia Pacific region.

I have been an anti-nuclear activist since 1969 when as a teenager. I followed David Brower out of the Sierra Club and into the Friends of the Earth that he had initiated because the former supported the proposed Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant near San Luis Obispo, California (which we are still fighting to close to this day, 54 years later). In 1976 I was one of the co-founders of the anti-nuclear Clamshell Alliance in New England, whose mass occupations of the construction site of the Seabrook nuclear reactors in New Hampshire sparked a wave of similar actions across the nation in the 1970s and ’80s, including at Diablo Canyon. The Clamshell Alliance was invited to send two representatives to the first national US Green Party organizing meeting in St. Paul, Minnesota in August 1984. I was selected to go, along with another Clamshell co-founder, the late Guy Chichester.

This year in New York a coalition has been working to stop Holtec International from executing its plan to dump more than a million gallons of radioactive wastewater into the Hudson River from the Indian Point nuclear reactors that have been shut down and are in the process of being decommissioned. On Friday, June 9, the last day of the 2023 legislative session, the State Senate unanimously passed S6893, which prohibits such dumping. But the Assembly failed to pass the companion bill, A7208, before the state legislature went into recess for the rest of the year. Environmentalists in New York immediately demanded a special legislative session to pass the bill before Holtec International goes ahead with its plan to start the dumping.

When I arrived in South Korea, I soon learned how their fight against the much larger proposed dump of radioactive nuclear wastewater from the Fukushima reactors in Japan is a major issue in South Korea and around the Asia Pacific region. The owner of the reactors, the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), plans to begin injecting more than 1.3 million tons of contaminated water into the Pacific Ocean. TEPCO claims to be running out of storage space. With a half-life of 12.33 years, the radioactive tritium in the wastewater could be isolated from the environment until it decays into helium. That would take building more storage tanks, but it would be better than rushing to dump the radioactive wastewater into the Pacific Ocean now, which could affect ecosystems all the way to North America.

The Dangers Should Be Evident

Because the ongoing cooling process for the three melted-down Fukushima reactor cores produces more than 130 tons of contaminated water daily, a release of radioactive isotopes could go on for decades. The radioactive wastewater contains cesium-137, strontium-90, and substantial amounts of tritium. The latter is a comparatively weak isotope whose beta radiation cannot penetrate the skin, but it can be harmful when ingested and lodged in the body, where the beta radiation can cause cancerous cell mutations, miscarriages, and birth defects. Scientists warn that the tritium in the water organically binds to other molecules, moving up the food chain. They say the radioactive hazards of tritium have been underestimated and could pose risks to humans and the environment for over a hundred years.

Radioactive isotopes will accumulate in plankton at the bottom of the food chain and bioconcentrate up the food chain through a variety of invertebrates, fish, marine mammals, and humans. The US National Association of Marine Laboratories, representing over a hundred member labs, opposes the Fukushima wastewater release plan. A recent study indicates that microplastics—tiny plastic particles that are increasingly widespread in the oceans and accumulating in the bodies of organisms, including humans—may also be a major vector of radionuclide transport and bioaccumulation. While TEPCO claims it is filtrating out the cesium-127 and strontium-90 to “safe” levels, the results have been shown to vary widely from tank to tank. And there really is no safe level of radiation. Strontium-90 is of particular concern because it lodges in bones and increases risks of bone cancer and leukemia.

On June 5, before the start of the Global Greens Congress, I made a solidarity statement at a news conference hosted by the Justice Party of South Korea, which concluded by emphasizing how that party and the Green Party US are excluded from their fair share of government representation by limited or no proportional representation. The point was well-received by the Justice Party members who got nearly 10% of the vote in the last national parliamentary elections, but only 2% of the seats, six out of 300, under South Korea’s limited proportional representation. My message was: “Limited proportional representation is limited democracy.”

I participated in the news conference with Michael Feinstein, former Green mayor of Santa Monica; Matthew Skolar, co-chair of the Young EcoSocialists (YES, the youth caucus of the Green Party US); and Austin Bashore, co-chair of the Green Party US International Committee. Austin lives in South Korea and took the initiative to approach the Justice Party for a meeting. Representing the Justice Party were Sim Sang-jung, Justice Party 2022 presidential candidate and representative in the National Assembly; Bae Jin Gyo, a Justice Party representative in the National Assembly; and Party Spokesperson Wee Seon-hee. We concluded the press conference by holding up signs opposing the dumping of radioactive wastewater at Fukushima. The joint Green-Progressive news conference was covered in several Korean media outlets, including Kyunghyang Shinmun, an independent employee-owned newspaper that is considered the progressive major daily newspaper of South Korea.

Later in the week, on June 10, I also had the opportunity to meet with Hong Heejin, the youth leader of the Progressive Party of South Korea, at the Global Greens Congress, which she attended as an observer. The Fukushima dumping was a big issue for the Progressives as well, and Hong Heejin invited me to join the Progressive Party on June 12 for a demonstration called by the Fishermen’s Union.

All Connected by the Same Ocean

The Fishermen’s Union demonstration was far more disciplined and unified than US demonstrations tend to be. Instead of milling about on their feet talking to each other more than paying attention to speakers on the stage that characterizes American demonstrations, these 4,000 or so fishermen were seated cross-legged in rows on a closed-off street in front of the National Assembly building. They exuded a strong image of unity and militancy for their demands. They chanted out their union slogans and demonstration demands loudly and in unison. The union had its own anthem and hand-dance to go with it that everyone did—several times. They read out a solidarity statement sent by Fukushima fishermen that noted that they are connected by the same ocean to each other and to the whole world, which is why we must stop the dumping. They had scientists explain the dangers of tritium to ecosystems and food chains. There were dozens of media outlets covering it, as well as a heavy police presence.

From my conversations with Greens from Japan, Taiwan, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Australia, and New Zealand, it was clear that the Fukushima nuclear wastewater dumping is a huge concern for Greens and ordinary people throughout the Asia Pacific region. The Global Greens Congress adopted a resolution sponsored by the Green parties of Japan and Australia against it.

When I returned to New York I was glad to learn that the state legislature was coming back into session for two days to consider some unfinished business. On June 20 the Assembly finally did pass the anti-dumping bill they had failed to adopt before the regular legislative sessions ended. The anti-nuclear activism that made a difference in New York should encourage us.

Now we need to add our voices to the demands by Asia Pacific countries to prevent the wastewater dumping at Fukushima. Many Asia Pacific nations are opposing it, including South Korea, China, Taiwan, and the Pacific Islands Forum, an organization representing 18 island nations already damaged by decades of nuclear testing in the region. On the other hand, the G7 intergovernmental political forum of wealthy nations, consisting of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States, declared support for the plan at their meeting in April. We need to put the heat on the Biden administration to reverse its policy and oppose the plan. The environmental movements and fishermen’s organizations of the Asia Pacific region need our support to protect their environments and livelihoods.

Fisherman’s Protest Photo Gallery

September 29, 2024 Update:

On August 24, 2023, Japan began the discharge of tritium-laced wastewater into the Pacific Ocean. Over 1 million tons of this wastewater are planned to be released by Japan over the next thirty years. The United States and the International Atomic Energy Agency approved the plan. The beginning of the wastewater release provoked street protests in Japan, South Korea, and other Pacific nations. China banned Japanese seafood.

In September 2023, 363 Japanese citizens primarily from the fisheries industry filed a lawsuit in Fukushima District Court against the wastewater releases. The lawsuit charges that the releases are harming their livelihoods, preventing their “right to a peaceful life” under Japanese law, and, under international law, violating the Protocol to the London Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matters. A hearing was held in March and a decision is still pending.